Word
Dat gezegd hebbende, is de diplomatie onze enige hoop.
Meaning
That having been said, diplomacy is our only hope.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Dat gezegd hebbende, is de diplomatie onze enige hoop.
zijn
to be
hebben
to have
zeggen
to say
onze
our (de-words, plurals)
Questions & Answers about Dat gezegd hebbende, is de diplomatie onze enige hoop.
How does the phrase Dat gezegd hebbende work grammatically?
It translates literally to "That said having". This is an absolute participial construction. It combines the past participle gezegd (said) with the present participle hebbende (having) to frame the rest of the sentence, showing that the speaking action was completed before the main thought begins.
Why is the verb inverted to is de diplomatie instead of de diplomatie is?
Dutch strictly follows the V2 (verb-second) rule. Even though there is a comma, the entire phrase Dat gezegd hebbende acts as the first grammatical building block of the sentence. Therefore, the verb is must come in the second position, pushing the subject de diplomatie after it.
Can I shorten this phrase to just Dat gezegd to match the English "That said"?
No, you generally cannot. While English speakers frequently drop "having been" to just say "That said", Dutch requires the full construction with hebbende for this rhetorical framing phrase to sound correct.
Why is the article de used before diplomatie?
In English, we typically leave out the article when talking about abstract concepts in a general sense, like "diplomacy", "nature", or "history". In Dutch, it is much more common for these abstract nouns to keep their definite article, hence de diplomatie.