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22
Verb
tenses
154
Ik bel je op als ik je essay heb gelezen.
I’ll call you after I have read your essay.
Zodra we dat bloemperk omgespit hebben, kunnen de bollen erin.
As soon as we’ve turned the soil of that flower bed, the bulbs can go in.
The past perfect tense
The past perfect tense is used to talk about a past event from the perspective
of another past event. Take as examples the sentences from
Erik’s story:
Voordat Erik in Groningen ging studeren, had hij nog nooit in een grotere
stad gewoond. Toen hij zijn studie afgemaakt had en met Sanne
trouwde, wilde hij weer in een dorp wonen.
The different tenses in the sentences are used to create a chronology of
past events. What happened before the event in the simple past (ging
studeren, met Sanne trouwde), must be put in the past perfect. Another
example:
Gisteren kwam ik Lydia tegen. Die was net bij de kapper geweest.
Yesterday I ran into Lydia. She had just been to the hairdresser’s.
Lydia’s haircut happened before the speaker ran into her.
The past perfect is also used to reflect on past events that could have
happened, but did not and never will, or events that did happen but should
not have. Examples:
Als hij niet zo duur was geweest, had ik die ketting gekocht.
If it hadn’t been so expensive, I would have bought that necklace.
Als ik geweten had dat de winkel dicht zou zijn, was ik er niet
heengefietst.
If I had known the store was closed, I wouldn’t have cycled there.
Sentences with nadat
A sentence beginning with the subordinated conjunction nadat must be
either in the present perfect or in the past perfect. If it is in the past perfect,
the main sentence must be in the simple past, and the action of the
sentence takes place in the past (see sentence 1 below) . If it is in the present
perfect, the main sentence must be in the present tense, and the action