Word
Het sneeuwt nu niet, maar het is heel koud.
Meaning
It is not snowing now, but it is very cold.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Het sneeuwt nu niet, maar het is heel koud.
Why does the sentence use Het sneeuwt instead of a continuous form?
In Dutch, the simple present tense is usually enough to express that something is happening right now. While Dutch has ways to say you are in the middle of doing something, for weather verbs like sneeuwen (to snow) you normally just use the simple present: het sneeuwt means both 'it snows' and 'it is snowing'.
Why is niet placed after nu?
In Dutch, time words like nu (now) almost always come before the negation word niet. The word niet likes to sit close to the end of the clause to negate the entire action, so it naturally follows the time indication.
Does the word maar (but) change the word order in the second part of the sentence?
No, maar is a coordinating conjunction, which is a joining word that links two regular sentences without changing their word order. That is why the second part follows standard subject-verb order: het (subject) followed by is (verb).
Could I use erg instead of heel to say it is very cold?
Yes, you can! Both heel koud and erg koud mean 'very cold' and are completely interchangeable in this sentence.
If I wanted to say 'in the winter' here to practice seasons, how would I add it to the second half?