Breakdown of Doordat de verwijsbrief is goedgekeurd, is de afspraak ingepland.
zijn
to be
de afspraak
the appointment
doordat
because of the fact that / because (cause)
goedkeuren
to approve
inplannen
to schedule
de verwijsbrief
the referral letter
Questions & Answers about Doordat de verwijsbrief is goedgekeurd, is de afspraak ingepland.
The current lesson is about the nominal style. How can I rewrite this sentence using that structure?
You can replace the whole subordinate clause starting with doordat (because) with a prepositional phrase using door (through/due to). The structure is the preposition + het + infinitive + van. This gives you: Door het goedkeuren van de verwijsbrief is de afspraak ingepland. This nominal style is very common in formal or written Dutch as a way to make sentences more concise.
Why does this sentence use doordat instead of omdat?
While both mean because, doordat expresses a strict cause-and-effect relationship where the consequence is automatic or beyond human volition (the system's approval triggers the scheduling). Omdat is used to give a human reason or motivation. In formal written Dutch, this distinction is strictly maintained, though in everyday casual speech, people often just use omdat for everything.
Why is the auxiliary verb is used in is goedgekeurd rather than heeft?
This is the present perfect tense of the passive voice. An active sentence would be something like De arts heeft de brief goedgekeurd (The doctor has approved the letter). To make a perfect tense passive in Dutch, the standard passive auxiliary verb worden is replaced by zijn (to be). Therefore, it becomes is goedgekeurd (has been approved). The same logic applies to is ingepland.
How does the spelling of goedgekeurd and ingepland show us they are separable verbs?
Both are past participles where the prefix ge- sits right in the middle of the word. They come from the separable verbs goedkeuren (to approve) and inplannen (to schedule). When a separable verb is made into a past participle, the ge- is always wedged between the separable prefix (goed-, in-) and the root verb.
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