Breakdown of Waarom gaan die mensen vroeg weg?
vroeg
early
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
waarom
why
de mens
the human / the person
weggaan
to leave / to go away (casual, from a place)
Questions & Answers about Waarom gaan die mensen vroeg weg?
Why are gaan and weg separated in this sentence?
The full verb here is weggaan, which is a separable verb meaning 'to leave'. When a separable verb is the main verb in a standard sentence or question, it splits: the core verb (gaan) takes the normal verb position, and the prefix (weg) gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
Why does gaan come before the subject die mensen?
Because this is an open question. In Dutch, when a sentence starts with a question word like Waarom (why), the verb must come immediately after it. The subject (die mensen) then follows the verb.
What does weg mean on its own?
By itself, weg means 'away' or 'gone'. So weggaan literally translates to 'to go away'. This is how many separable verbs are made: by attaching a direction or location word to a basic verb.
Why do we use die for 'those' instead of dat?
Mensen (people) is a plural noun. In Dutch, all plural nouns act as de-words. For de-words, we always use die to say 'that' or 'those'. We only use dat for singular het-words.
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