Word
Ik heb naar muziek geluisterd toen de vogels in de tuin zongen.
Meaning
I listened to music when the birds sang in the garden.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ik heb naar muziek geluisterd toen de vogels in de tuin zongen.
ik
I
hebben
to have
naar
to
in
in
de tuin
the garden
zingen
to sing
de muziek
the music
luisteren
to listen
de vogel
the bird
toen
when
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Questions & Answers about Ik heb naar muziek geluisterd toen de vogels in de tuin zongen.
Why is the preposition naar used before muziek in this sentence?
In Dutch, the verb luisteren (to listen) requires the preposition naar to indicate what is being listened to. So in the sentence, naar muziek literally translates to "to music," mirroring the English phrase "listen to music."
What tense is used in “Ik heb naar muziek geluisterd” and why is it constructed that way?
The sentence is in the perfect tense. It uses the auxiliary verb heb together with the past participle geluisterd to form a compound past construction. In conversational Dutch, the perfect tense is commonly used to describe past actions, even when the simple past form exists.
Why is geluisterd placed at the end of the clause rather than immediately after heb?
Dutch word order in compound tenses typically places the past participle at the end. The auxiliary verb (heb) occupies the second position in the main clause, while the participle (geluisterd) is moved to the end. This is a standard syntactic feature in Dutch sentences.
What role does toen play in this sentence?
Toen is a temporal conjunction meaning "when" (referring to the past). It introduces the subordinate clause de vogels in de tuin zongen, specifying the time during which the listening event occurred.
How does the subordinate clause de vogels in de tuin zongen relate to the main clause?
This subordinate clause provides context by indicating when the main action of listening to music took place. It describes an event occurring simultaneously or in a specific past setting, enriching the overall narrative by connecting the two activities.
Why does the subordinate clause end with the verb zongen?
In Dutch subordinate clauses, the finite verb typically goes to the end of the clause. That’s why zongen (past tense of zingen, meaning "to sing") appears at the end of the subordinate clause introduced by toen. This is a common feature of Dutch sentence structure.
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