Hello, Why do we use 'geweest' at the end of the phrase? I do not understand why do we have a second verb that is just a different form of 'zijn' and is not modifying the phrase at all

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Hello,
Why do we use ‘geweest’ at the end of the phrase? I do not understand why do we have a second verb that is just a different form of ‘zijn’ and is not modifying the phrase at all.

2

ik ben geweest = I have been

if you’re simply talking about having been somewhere for a period of time, you don’t need geweest, simple present is enough

ik ben hier al minstens 30 uur. I’ve been here for at least 30 hours

however, in the negative use geweest

ik ben er al minstens 20 jaar niet meer geweest. I haven’t been there in at least 20 years.

also be aware that hier works in conjunction with prepositions, in which case it means dit

hierover / hier … over = over dit

ik ben hier al minstens een uur over aan het twitteren. I’ve been sitting here tweeting about this for at least the last hour.

if you’re talking about having been there a number of times before, then you need geweest

Daar ben ik vaker geweest. I’ve been there a bunch of times.

ik ben hier al minstens 5x geweest = I’ve been here at least 5 times

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