Ik heb vandaag niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve het recyclen van oude bloempotten.

I did nothing special today, except recycling old flowerpots.

Breakdown of Ik heb vandaag niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve het recyclen van oude bloempotten.

• ik: I
• hebben: to have
• oud: old
• vandaag: today
• doen: to do
• bijzonder: special
• van: of
• niets: nothing
• de bloempot: the flowerpot
• behalve: except
• het recyclen: the recycling

Questions & Answers about Ik heb vandaag niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve het recyclen van oude bloempotten.

What tense is heb gedaan, and how is it formed?

Heb gedaan is the perfect tense, built with the auxiliary hebben (in this case heb) plus the past participle gedaan. It’s used to:

• Talk about past actions that have relevance to the present.
• Report completed activities in everyday conversation (much like English “I have done”).

In Dutch, the perfect often replaces what English might render as a simple past (“I did…”).

Why is niets used here instead of geen?

Niets is an indefinite pronoun meaning “nothing.” You use it to negate an entire action or idea:

• Ik heb niets gedaan = “I did nothing.”

By contrast, geen negates a following noun:

• Ik heb geen geld = “I have no money.”

You can’t say geen iets to mean “nothing”; you must use niets.

Why is there an -s on bijzonder (making bijzonders) in niets bijzonders?

When you pair niets with an adjective, you turn that adjective into a noun-like form by adding -s. So:

• niets bijzonders = “nothing special.”

Here bijzonders behaves like a substantive (“special thing”), which niets then negates.

How does behalve work in this sentence?

Behalve means “except,” “apart from,” or “besides.” In your sentence it introduces the one activity that did happen:

• Ik heb vandaag niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve het recyclen van oude bloempotten.
  Literally: “I did nothing special today, except recycling old flowerpots.”

Key points:

1. It’s a preposition here, so it’s followed by a noun phrase (not a full clause).
2. If you wanted a clause, you’d need behalve dat
   • finite verb:
     “Ik heb vandaag niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve dat ik oude bloempotten recyclet.”

Why is there a het before recyclen?

Dutch often nominalizes verbs by adding an article plus the infinitive:

• het recyclen = “the recycling.”

This turns the action into a noun, letting behalve link to it as a thing you did.

Why is the object of recycling introduced by van (as in recyclen van oude bloempotten)?

In nominalized verb phrases, the former direct object is connected with van (just like English “of”). So:

• gewone verb clause: ik recycle oude bloempotten
• nominalized: het recyclen van oude bloempotten

Without nominalization you wouldn’t use van: “Ik recycle oude bloempotten.”

Why isn’t there an article before oude bloempotten?

Here oude bloempotten is an indefinite plural noun. Dutch allows plural nouns with no article when you speak in general terms (“some old flowerpots”). If you wanted to refer to specific pots, you could say:

• het recyclen van de oude bloempotten.

Why is vandaag placed between heb and gedaan, and could it go elsewhere?

In a perfect-tense main clause, time adverbials like vandaag can sit between the auxiliary and past participle:

• Ik heb vandaag niets gedaan.

You also have freedom to front the time element for emphasis:

• Vandaag heb ik niets bijzonders gedaan, behalve…