The Dutch perfect tense (voltooid tegenwoordige tijd) describes completed actions that are still relevant now. It is formed with a present-tense form of hebben + the past participle. For regular verbs, form the past participle by adding ge- to the stem and -t or -d at the end: werken → gewerkt, leven → geleefd. The famous ‘t kofschip rule tells you which ending to use: if the last consonant of the stem appears in ‘t kofschip, add -t; otherwise add -d.
The word order in a perfect tense sentence follows standard Dutch rules with one addition: the past participle goes to the end of the clause. In a main clause: “Ik heb de brief geschreven” (I have written the letter) — heb in second position, geschreven at the end. In a subordinate clause everything clusters at the end: “…omdat ik de brief heb geschreven.” The auxiliary and participle sit together at the end, with the auxiliary typically coming just before the participle.
The Dutch perfect is used far more broadly than the English perfect — it also covers situations where English uses the simple past. “Ik heb gisteren gewerkt” means “I worked yesterday,” not just “I have worked yesterday.” This is an important difference: where English separates the past simple from the present perfect, Dutch uses the perfect tense for both completed past actions and recently completed ones. Only in formal writing and narration does Dutch use the simple past (imperfect) instead.