gepakt

Gepakt is the past participle of the Dutch verb pakken, meaning to take, grab, or seize. In standard Dutch it is used with the auxiliary hebben to form perfect tenses, as in Ik heb de trein gepakt (I have taken the train). The participle can indicate a literal grabbing of an object or a figurative taking up something, such as a task or opportunity, in phrases like iets oppakken (to take up something).

Gepakt also appears in passive or stative contexts to describe a situation that has been taken or captured, for example De verdachte is gepakt door de politie (The suspect has been caught by the police). In this usage it conveys a completed action with relevance to the present or a recent event.

Morphology and usage notes: Gepakt is a regular past participle form from pakken, a West Germanic verb related to German packen. For verbs with separable prefixes, the past participle forms differently in compounds; for example, oppakken becomes opgepakt in the perfect tense (De dief is opgepakt). The base form gepakt is common in many tensed constructions with algemene, plain usage in both spoken and written Dutch.

See also: Dutch verbs and past participles; pakken; oppakken.