Hij had de tekst voor de website zorgvuldig geëdit.
He had carefully edited the text for the website.
Breakdown of Hij had de tekst voor de website zorgvuldig geëdit.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
voor
for (on behalf of)
de tekst
the text
Questions & Answers about Hij had de tekst voor de website zorgvuldig geëdit.
Why does geëdit have two dots (a trema) on the e?
The trema prevents you from mispronouncing the vowel combination. Without it, the ee in geedit would look like the long Dutch vowel sound found in words like geel. The ë tells you that the Dutch prefix ge- and the English stem edit must be pronounced as separate syllables.
How do you know whether the past participle geëdit ends in a -d or a -t?
English loanverbs follow the standard Dutch 't kofschip rule based on the final sound of the English stem. The stem of the verb editen is edit. Since the final letter of the stem is a t (which is one of the consonants in 't kofschip), the past participle gets a -t. Because the stem already ends in a t, we don't write a double t at the end of a word, leaving us with just geëdit.
What would the simple past tense of this verb look like?
Following the same 't kofschip rule, you add -te to the stem for singular subjects. The stem is edit, so adding -te gives you editte. For example, 'he edited the text' in the simple past would be hij editte de tekst.
Is website treated exactly like a native Dutch word?