Breakdown of Het sneeuwt nu niet, maar het is heel koud.
zijn
to be
niet
not
maar
but
nu
now
koud
cold
heel
very
het
it
sneeuwen
to snow
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?
You would use the preposition in and the season: in de winter. Because of Dutch word order rules, time phrases usually go right after the verb. So you would say: maar het is in de winter heel koud (but it is very cold in the winter).
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