Word
Ik houd van de zomer, maar de winter is te koud.
Meaning
I love summer, but winter is too cold.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Ik houd van de zomer, maar de winter is te koud.
Does the word maar change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, it doesn't. The word maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction, just like en (and) and of (or). They simply glue two normal sentences together without mixing up the word order. So the second part keeps its standard structure: the subject (de winter) followed by the verb (is).
Why is there a van after houd? Doesn't houden mean to hold?
By itself, houden does mean to hold. But when you add the preposition van, it creates the fixed expression houden van, which means to love or to care for something. So Ik houd van translates to I love.
In English we just say I love summer, but the Dutch sentence says de zomer. Do I need the article here?
Yes, in Dutch you generally use the definite article (de) when talking about seasons in a general sense. That is why the sentence uses de zomer (the summer) and de winter (the winter).
Does te koud translate exactly to too cold, or does te have other meanings?
When placed right before an adjective like koud (cold), te means too in the sense of excessively, making te koud mean too cold. It can also mean to in other grammar structures, but before a describing word, it works just like the English too.