Questions & Answers about De peuter is pas geboren.
Why does the Dutch sentence use is when the English translation says "was"?
In Dutch, the infinitive for "to be born" is geboren worden. To express that someone was born, Dutch uses the present perfect tense with the auxiliary verb zijn (to be). Therefore, is geboren literally translates as "has been born," which is the standard way to express "was born" in Dutch.
What exactly does pas mean here? Could I use net instead?
Pas means "only just" or "recently," emphasizing that very little time has passed since the event. You could definitely use net here (de peuter is net geboren) with almost the exact same meaning. Pas can sometimes carry a slightly stronger sense of "not until recently," whereas net simply means "just."
Wait, a peuter is a toddler. Isn't it contradictory to say a toddler was "only just born"?
Yes, it is quite contradictory literally! A peuter is typically 2 to 4 years old, while a newborn would be a baby or pasgeborene. This is likely a quirky practice sentence, though a parent might say it figuratively to express how fast time flies, as in: "It feels like they were only just born!"
How would the word order change if this were a subordinate clause, for instance after omdat (because)?
In a subordinate clause, the verbs are pushed to the end. It would become: ... omdat de peuter pas is geboren or ... omdat de peuter pas geboren is. When you have an auxiliary verb (is) and a participle (geboren) at the end of a clause, both word orders are grammatically correct in Dutch.
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