gehad

Ge had is the past participle of the Dutch verb hebben, meaning to have. It is used to form the perfect tenses of hebben and to express possession or experience in the past. A sentence such as Ik heb drie auto's gehad illustrates its use to indicate having possessed something in the past.

The form geen regular rule applies here: the past participle gehad is irregular. In Dutch, many past participles are built as ge- plus a stem and the ending -d or -t, but gehad does not follow that straightforward pattern. The form reflects an older pattern related to the auxiliary verb hebben, and is widely recognized as the standard past participle of hebben.

Common uses include. Present perfect with hebben: Ik heb gehad. Pluperfect (past perfect) uses had gehad: Toen ik jonger was, had ik geen tijd gehad. Future perfect can be expressed as zal hebben gehad or soms het gehad hebben: Ik zal het gehad hebben. In practice, gehad appears only when talking about having experienced or possessed something in the past, often with context that makes the meaning clear.

Etymology and cognates: gehad is cognate with the German gehabt, the Afrikaans gehad, and related West Germanic forms. Its irregular form reflects historical developments in the conjugation of the auxiliary verb hebben, and it remains a common, essential part of everyday Dutch grammar.