Word
Hij heeft de doorgang gisteren pas ontdekt.
Meaning
He discovered the passage only yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij heeft de doorgang gisteren pas ontdekt.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
gisteren
yesterday
ontdekken
to discover
Questions & Answers about Hij heeft de doorgang gisteren pas ontdekt.
Why does this sentence use pas for 'only' instead of alleen?
In Dutch, pas is used when 'only' relates to time, meaning 'only just' or 'not until'. It shows that the action happened later than expected. If you used alleen, it would mean he was the only person who discovered it, or that he discovered only the passage and nothing else.
Could I change the word order to put gisteren pas before de doorgang?
Yes, but it shifts the emphasis. The general rule is that definite objects (like de doorgang) usually come before adverbs of time (like gisteren pas). If you change it to Hij heeft gisteren pas de doorgang ontdekt, it puts a heavier focus on the passage itself, emphasizing what was discovered rather than when.
Why doesn't the past participle ontdekt have a ge- prefix?
Verbs that start with inseparable prefixes like ont-, be-, ge-, ver-, er-, and her- do not get an extra ge- prefix when forming the past participle. Since the infinitive is ontdekken, the past participle is simply ontdekt.
Is there a difference between doorgang and just gang?