Word
Zij droomde van een geweldige carrière toen zij afstudeerde.
Meaning
She dreamed of a great career when she graduated.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Zij droomde van een geweldige carrière toen zij afstudeerde.
zij
she
een
a/an
geweldig
great
dromen
to dream
Questions & Answers about Zij droomde van een geweldige carrière toen zij afstudeerde.
Why is afstudeerde written as one single word here? Isn't afstuderen a separable verb?
Yes, afstuderen (to graduate) is a separable verb. In a normal main sentence, it splits (for example: Zij studeerde af). However, because the word toen pushes all verbs to the end of the clause, the two parts of the separable verb are pushed back together into a single word: afstudeerde.
Could I use wanneer instead of toen in this sentence?
No, you must use toen here. In Dutch, toen is used specifically for things that happened in the past, either as a single event or a continuous period. Because her graduation happened in the past, you have to use toen. Wanneer is used for questions or for repeated events (meaning "whenever").
Why do we say droomde van instead of droomde over?
The verb dromen (to dream) uses the fixed preposition van when it means "to wish for" or "to aspire to", like dreaming of a career. You would typically use dromen over when talking about the literal images you saw in your sleep.
Why does geweldige have an -e at the end?
Carrière is a de-word (de carrière). When you put an adjective before a noun that takes de, the adjective almost always gets an extra -e at the end. This happens even when the word een (a) comes before it.