Breakdown of Er det dommeren der kan bevise det?
være
to be
det
it (neuter)
kunne
to be able to / can
der
who, which (relative, subject)
dommeren
the judge / the referee
bevise
to prove
Questions & Answers about Er det dommeren der kan bevise det?
Why does this sentence start with "Er det" instead of "Det er"?
This is a cleft sentence used to emphasize who is doing the action. To turn a normal cleft sentence like Det er dommeren (It is the judge) into a yes/no question, you just swap the verb and the subject, exactly like in English: Er det dommeren (Is it the judge).
Could I use "som" instead of "der" in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Both der and som mean "who" or "that" here. You can use either when referring to the subject of the clause (the one doing the proving). However, der is only used for subjects, while som can be used for both subjects and objects. Since the judge is the subject doing the action, der is a perfect and very common choice.
Why is it "dommeren" and not just "dommer"?
Dommer means "judge", but the sentence specifically says "the judge". In Danish, to say "the", you add the suffix -en (or -et for t-words) to the end of the noun. So, dommer becomes dommeren.
Why does "bevise" end in an "e"?
Bevise (to prove) is in the infinitive form because it comes directly after the modal verb kan (can). Just like in English where we say "can prove" and not "can to prove" or "can proves", Danish uses the dictionary form of the verb after a modal verb.
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