Breakdown of Gisteravond heb ik een film gekeken.
ik
I
hebben
to have
een
a, an
kijken
to watch
de film
the movie
gisteravond
last night
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Questions & Answers about Gisteravond heb ik een film gekeken.
Why does gisteravond come at the beginning of the sentence?
In Dutch, time expressions often occupy the first position for emphasis. Because gisteravond is in position one, the conjugated verb heb must follow in position two, pushing the subject ik to position three. This is known as V2 (verb-second) word order.
Why is it heb ik instead of ik heb in this sentence?
Dutch requires the finite verb to be the second element in a main clause. When you start with gisteravond, the verb comes next (position two) and the subject follows. Hence Gisteravond heb ik… rather than Ik heb gisteravond… if you begin with a time phrase.
What roles do heb and gekeken play here?
heb is the auxiliary verb used to form the perfect tense, and gekeken is the past participle of kijken (to watch). Together they express a completed action: “I have watched a film (last night).”
Can I use the simple past keek instead of the perfect heb…gekeken?
Yes. You could say Gisteravond keek ik een film. The simple past (imperfectum) is perfectly correct and often appears in writing or formal speech. In casual spoken Dutch, however, the perfect tense is generally preferred for past events.
Why is it gekeken and not gezien?
kijken (“to watch/look”) takes hebben + gekeken to mean “to watch.” zien means “to see” in the sense of perceiving, using hebben + gezien. If you want to say “I saw a movie” without focusing on the action of watching, you’d use heb ik een film gezien.
Could I move gisteravond to the end like in English?
Dutch prefers time expressions either at the beginning or right after the subject. Ending the sentence with gisteravond (…een film gekeken gisteravond) sounds informal or clumsy. Better options are Ik heb gisteravond een film gekeken or the inversion form starting with gisteravond.
Why is there an indefinite article een before film instead of de?
The indefinite article een indicates you’re talking about any film, not a specific one known to speaker and listener. de film would imply both parties know which film is meant (“the film”).
Can I say vannacht instead of gisteravond?
No. vannacht refers to “last night” during the late-night or early-morning hours, while gisteravond specifically means “yesterday evening.” They describe different time periods and aren’t interchangeable.