Breakdown of Hem werd duizend euro gegeven nadat hij de jackpot had gewonnen.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
de euro
the euro
geven
to give
hem
him
worden
to become
winnen
to win
nadat
after
duizend
one thousand
de jackpot
the jackpot
Questions & Answers about Hem werd duizend euro gegeven nadat hij de jackpot had gewonnen.
Why does the sentence start with Hem (him) instead of Hij (he) like the English translation?
In English, the person receiving something can become the subject of a passive sentence ("He was given"). In Dutch, this isn't allowed. The indirect object must remain an object. Because duizend euro is the thing being given, it becomes the grammatical subject, and hem stays an object pronoun. It is placed at the start of the sentence here just for emphasis.
Could I say Aan hem werd duizend euro gegeven instead?
Yes, you can! Because hem is the indirect object, you can explicitly add the preposition aan (to). When the indirect object is placed at the beginning of the sentence like this, it is very common to drop aan, but including it is perfectly correct and often makes the grammatical structure easier to see.
If hem isn't the subject, why is the verb werd singular? Doesn't duizend euro count as plural?
The verb werd agrees with the actual grammatical subject, duizend euro. In Dutch, when expressing a specific amount or price, currencies like euro remain singular and take a singular verb. Therefore, the singular verb werd is correct, rather than the plural werden.
Why are the verbs had gewonnen grouped at the very end of the sentence?
The conjunction nadat (after) introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, all verbs are pushed to the end. Since this clause uses the past perfect tense, the auxiliary verb had and the past participle gewonnen are placed together at the very end. Note that you can also swap their order to gewonnen had.
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