Breakdown of Ik draag mijn nieuwe trui, want het is koud.
ik
I
zijn
to be
koud
cold
mijn
my
de trui
the sweater
dragen
to wear
het
it
want
because
nieuw
new
Questions & Answers about Ik draag mijn nieuwe trui, want het is koud.
Why is the word order het is koud and not reversed after want?
Want (because) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it simply connects two complete, normal sentences without changing the word order of the second one. You just keep the normal Subject-Verb pattern: het (it) + is (is).
The English translation says 'I am wearing'. Why isn't there a continuous tense in the Dutch sentence?
Dutch doesn't use a direct equivalent of the English '-ing' form to show that something is happening right now. The simple present tense ik draag translates to both 'I wear' in general and 'I am wearing' at this very moment. You can tell which one it is from the context.
Why does nieuw have an -e added to the end to make nieuwe?
In Dutch, adjectives usually get an extra -e at the end when they are placed directly before a noun. Because the adjective nieuw comes right before the noun trui (sweater), it becomes nieuwe.
Is the comma before want required here?
Yes! When you use coordinating conjunctions like want (because) or maar (but) to connect two full sentences that each have their own subject and verb, you must put a comma before them in Dutch.
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