Breakdown of Wij hebben het team gisteren gebrieft en de bestanden geüpdatet.
en
and
wij
we
hebben
to have
het
it
het team
the team
gisteren
yesterday
het bestand
the file
updaten
to update
briefen
to brief
Questions & Answers about Wij hebben het team gisteren gebrieft en de bestanden geüpdatet.
Why does geüpdatet have two dots (a trema) on the 'u'?
The past participle adds the prefix ge- to the English loanword updaten. Because 'e' and 'u' next to each other would normally be pronounced as the Dutch 'eu' sound (like in leuk), a trema is added to the 'u' to show that it starts a new syllable.
How is the ending of geüpdatet formed? Does it get an extra -et suffix?
It does not get an -et suffix. We use the stem update (keeping the English spelling so the pronunciation makes sense). Because the final pronounced sound of the stem is a 't', we apply the standard 't kofschip rule and add a -t to make the past participle: ge- + update + -t.
Why does gebrieft get a -t at the end instead of a -d?
English loanwords follow the standard Dutch conjugation rules based on their Dutch pronunciation. The infinitive is briefen, and its stem is brief. Since the last sound is an 'f' (which is one of the 't kofschip consonants), the past participle takes a -t.
Why do gebrieft and geüpdatet both appear at the end of their respective phrases?
This is a reminder of standard Dutch word order for the present perfect tense. The auxiliary verb (hebben) takes the second position in the sentence, and any past participles are pushed to the very end of their clauses, coming after time expressions like gisteren and direct objects like het team.
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