Breakdown of Heb je de taart gegeten? Die is heel lekker.
zijn
to be
hebben
to have
eten
to eat
lekker
tasty / nicely / pleasantly
de taart
the cake
heel
very
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Questions & Answers about Heb je de taart gegeten? Die is heel lekker.
Why does the second sentence use Die instead of a normal pronoun like Hij or Het for 'It'?
In Dutch, it is very common to use the demonstrative pronouns die (for de words) and dat (for het words) to refer back to an object you just mentioned. Since taart is a de word, we use die. You could use hij or zij, but die sounds much more natural to native speakers here.
Why is the word gegeten placed at the very end of the first sentence?
This is because of the Dutch verb order in the present perfect tense. The helping verb heb goes to the front to form a question, and the main action verb in its past participle form (gegeten) gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
Is gegeten a regular or irregular past participle?
It is irregular. The infinitive verb is eten (to eat). Instead of following the standard rules to make a past participle with a -t or -d ending, it simply takes the ge- prefix and keeps an -en ending, becoming gegeten.
Could I say erg lekker instead of heel lekker?
Yes, you can! Both heel and erg mean 'very' when placed before an adjective. Heel lekker and erg lekker are both perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing in this context.
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