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22
Verb
tenses
152
of ze namen ons mee naar de stad om ijs te eten, en soms mochten we
met opa mee naar zijn werkplaats. Met oma ging ik vaak mee boodschappen
doen. Dat vond ze fijn, want ik kon haar helpen de tassen te
dragen.
We used to visit grandpa and grandma once or twice a year. Usually,
we would stay a week. We’d go to the coast with grandma and
grandpa, or they’d take us to the city to eat ice cream, and sometimes
we were allowed to go to grandpa’s workshop. I often went shopping
with grandma. She liked that, because I was able to help her carry the
bags.
Oftentimes, the listener’s attention is first drawn to the past with a sentence
in the present perfect, upon which the event itself is described in the
simple past tense. Example:
Gisteren heb ik een huis bekeken. Het was een deel van een twee-onderéén-kap.
Er lag een grote tuin achter, en het huis had een eigen
garage. De vrouw die er nu woont, liet me alles zien. Ik vond het een
schitterend huis.
Yesterday I looked at a house. It was part of a duplex. There was a big
garden at the back, and the house had its own garage. The woman who
lives there now, showed me everything. I thought it was a gorgeous house.
The simple past tense is also used to imagine a possible future. Examples:
Als het niet regende, konden we wandelen.
If it didn’t rain, we could go for a walk.
Als Erik het geld had, kocht hij die auto meteen.
If Erik had the money, he’d buy that car right away.
See also the unit on the conditional for more examples in detail.
The present perfect tense
While the simple past is used to narrate a string of (isolated or regular)
events in the past, the present perfect tense is used to talk about isolated
events in the past that are linked to the present. The speaker is talking
from the perspective of the present, and the listener is not taken to the
past, but listens also from the perspective of the present. While sentences
in the simple past are more descriptive of a more clearly defined period
in the past, sentences in the present perfect always carry a certain relevance
for the present. Note the difference between the following possible
statements by Erik: