Gezegd

Gezegd is the past participle of the Dutch verb zeggen, meaning to say or to tell. It is commonly used with the auxiliary hebben to form perfect tenses, for example: Ik heb gezegd; Hij heeft gezegd dat hij komt. In many contexts it functions as a passive or semi-passive form, as in Het is gezegd dat de vergadering wordt verplaatst of Er werd gezegd dat de teams morgen starten.

Usage notes include indirect and reported speech. Gezegd frequently appears in constructions that convey what someone has stated, for instance: Volgens de woordvoerder is dat gezegd. It can also occur in passive or quasi-passive sentences: Dat is door veel mensen gezegd, en het is bevestigd. The preferred past passive form can be built with wordt of worden: Er wordt gezegd dat er onvoldoende geld is.

Etymology and related forms: Gezegd comes from the verb zeggen, which is cognate with the German sagen and the English say. The prefix ge- marks the past participle in Dutch, and the stem ends in -d rather than -t in this verb class. The related noun gezegde exists in Dutch with distinct meanings: gezegde can mean a proverb or a grammatical term for the predicate of a sentence (werkwoordelijk gezegde), which is different from the participle gezegd.

See also: zeggen, zeggen in indirect speech, gezegde (proverb and grammatical term). Gezegd should not be confused with gezegde, which has separate semantic and grammatical senses.