Breakdown of We zijn buiten aan het zwoegen geweest totdat de bijl kapot was.
zijn
to be
buiten
outside
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
kapot
broken
totdat
until (conjunction)
de bijl
the axe
zwoegen
to toil / to slave away
Questions & Answers about We zijn buiten aan het zwoegen geweest totdat de bijl kapot was.
How do you form the perfect continuous in Dutch as seen in this sentence?
To express that you 'have been doing' something, Dutch uses the present perfect of zijn (to be) combined with the aan het continuous structure. Literally, We zijn... aan het zwoegen geweest translates to 'We are... at the toiling been'.
Why is geweest placed after aan het zwoegen?
In this structure, the past participle geweest always goes to the end of the main clause, tucking neatly behind the entire aan het [infinitive] block. You cannot place geweest right next to the auxiliary verb zijn.
Why do we use zijn instead of hebben to translate 'have been'?
Because the past participle in the sentence is geweest (been). In Dutch, the verb zijn always uses itself as the auxiliary verb in perfect tenses, never hebben. You will never see hebben geweest in Dutch.
Why does the verb was come at the very end of the sentence?
The word totdat (until) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause and forces its conjugated verb (was) to the very end of that clause, placing it after the subject (de bijl) and the adjective (kapot).
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