Breakdown of Daarna gaan ze naar het station.
naar
to
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
het station
the station
daarna
after that
Questions & Answers about Daarna gaan ze naar het station.
Why is the verb before the subject (gaan ze instead of ze gaan)?
In Dutch, the conjugated verb is always the second piece of information in a normal sentence. Because this sentence starts with the time word Daarna (After that), the subject ze has to move after the verb gaan to keep the verb in the second spot. This is called inversion.
Could I start the sentence with Ze instead of Daarna?
Yes! If you want to start with the subject, you would say Ze gaan daarna naar het station. The meaning is the same, but putting Daarna at the beginning emphasizes when they are going.
Does ze mean "she" or "they" in this sentence?
It means "they". The word ze is the unstressed pronoun for both "she" and "they". We can tell it means "they" here because the verb gaan is plural. If it meant "she", the verb would be singular: Daarna gaat ze.
Why use naar to mean "to" in this sentence?
You use naar when you are talking about physical movement or direction toward a destination. Since they are traveling to the station, naar is the correct preposition to use.