Questions & Answers about De baas bedankt haar.
Why do we use haar here instead of zij or ze?
Zij and ze mean "she" and are used for the subject of the sentence (the person doing the action). Here, the boss is the one acting. Because the woman is receiving the action, we need the object pronoun "her". In Dutch, the object pronoun for "her" is haar.
I thought haar meant "hair" or was used like "her book". Are they the same word?
Yes! Haar is a very common word with three different meanings. It can be the object pronoun (as seen in this sentence: "thanks her"), the possessive pronoun ("her book"), and the noun for "hair" (het haar). You can figure out which one it is based on the context.
Why is the verb bedankt? I learned that "thank you" is dank je wel.
Bedankt comes from the verb bedanken, which means "to thank someone". You use this verb when describing the action, like "The boss thanks her". You use fixed phrases like dank je wel or just bedankt! when you are directly speaking to someone to say "thank you".
Could I change the word order to put haar at the beginning?
Yes, you can say Haar bedankt de baas if you want to emphasize that it is her the boss is thanking, and not someone else. Because Dutch verbs must stay in the second position of the sentence, starting with Haar pushes the subject (de baas) right after the verb.
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