Breakdown of Toen ik de dokter belde, kreeg ik meteen een afspraak.
ik
I
een
a, an
toen
when
de afspraak
the appointment
bellen
to call
de dokter
the doctor
krijgen
to get
meteen
immediately
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Questions & Answers about Toen ik de dokter belde, kreeg ik meteen een afspraak.
Why is Toen used instead of Wanneer at the start?
Toen introduces a single, completed event in the past. Wanneer is used in questions or to talk about general/repeated events. Since you’re describing one past action (“when I called”), Toen is correct.
Why does the verb belde appear at the end of the first clause?
In Dutch subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like Toen, the finite verb moves to the end. So Toen ik de dokter belde follows the standard SOV (subject-object-verb) order for subordinate clauses.
Why does the main clause start with kreeg instead of ik kreeg?
After a subordinate clause, Dutch main clauses use inversion: the finite verb comes first, then the subject. That’s why it’s kreeg ik rather than ik kreeg.
Why are both verbs in the simple past (belde, kreeg) instead of the perfect?
Dutch often uses the simple past (imperfectum) when narrating sequential, completed actions in the past. The perfect (e.g. heb gebeld) is also possible—especially in spoken Dutch—but the simple past is common in written or story-style contexts.
Why is it de dokter but een afspraak?
de dokter uses the definite article because you’re referring to a specific office or person known from context. een afspraak takes the indefinite article since it’s one appointment among many and wasn’t specified beforehand.
Why do we say een afspraak with krijgen instead of een afspraak maken?
Here the emphasis is on receiving a timeslot, so you use krijgen + noun (“to get an appointment”). If you want to focus on the act of scheduling, you’d say een afspraak maken (“to make an appointment”).
Why is the adverb meteen placed before een afspraak?
In Dutch main clauses, time-adverbs like meteen typically appear in the mid-field between the finite verb (after inversion) and the object. That gives you V-S-Adv-O: kreeg ik meteen een afspraak.