Breakdown of De baas vertrouwt hem niet en dat is erg vreemd.
zijn
to be
en
and
niet
not
erg
very / really
de baas
the boss
dat
that (het-words)
hem
him
vertrouwen
to trust
vreemd
strange / weird
Questions & Answers about De baas vertrouwt hem niet en dat is erg vreemd.
How would I change this to say 'The boss trusts nobody'?
You can use the indefinite pronoun niemand (nobody) from this lesson. The first part would become: De baas vertrouwt niemand. Notice that because niemand already makes the sentence negative, you must drop the word niet.
Why does niet come after hem instead of before it?
In Dutch, niet (not) generally comes after a specific direct object. Because hem (him) is a specific pronoun, niet has to follow it. You cannot say vertrouwt niet hem.
Doesn't erg usually mean 'bad' or 'terrible'?
Yes, when erg is used on its own to describe a noun, it means 'bad' or 'awful'. However, when you put it right in front of another adjective like vreemd (strange), it means 'very' or 'really'. It works exactly like the word heel.
Why doesn't the word order change after en?
The word en (and) connects two normal, independent sentences. It doesn't act like words such as omdat (because) that push the verb to the end of the clause. In the second half, dat (that) is the subject, followed normally by the verb is.
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