Word
Het regent niet, maar het waait hard.
Meaning
It is not raining, but it is blowing hard.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het regent niet, maar het waait hard.
niet
not
maar
but
hard
loud / fast (forceful) / hard (with effort)
het
it
Questions & Answers about Het regent niet, maar het waait hard.
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, which means it simply glues two normal sentences together without messing with their structure. In the second part, the subject (het) still comes first, followed directly by the verb (waait). The same rule applies to en (and) and of (or).
Do I need to put a comma before maar?
Yes. When maar connects two complete clauses (meaning both sides have their own subject and verb, like het regent niet and het waait hard), you should put a comma before it.
Why do we use the verb waait here? Doesn't that mean "blows"?
Exactly! While in English you might say "it is windy," Dutch speakers use the verb waaien (to blow) to talk about the wind. So het waait hard literally translates to "it blows hard."
Why is niet placed after the verb regent?
In Dutch, the word niet (not) usually comes after the specific verb it is negating. Because the first part of this sentence only consists of a subject (het) and a verb (regent), niet simply goes right after the verb to make it negative.