Breakdown of We downloaden veel van het internet, maar daarvan leren we weinig.
maar
but
daar
there
veel
much / many / a lot of
leren
to learn
Questions & Answers about We downloaden veel van het internet, maar daarvan leren we weinig.
Why do we use daarvan instead of van dat to say "from that"?
In Dutch, you cannot use a preposition (like van) followed directly by dat or dit when referring to objects or concepts. Instead, "that" changes to daar, and the preposition attaches to the end of it. So, "from that" becomes the pronominal adverb daarvan.
Why is the word order ...maar daarvan leren we weinig and not ...maar daarvan we leren weinig?
The conjunction maar (but) introduces a new main clause. Here, the clause starts with daarvan to put focus on it. Because of the strict "verb second" rule in Dutch main clauses, the verb leren must come immediately after the first element (daarvan). This pushes the subject we into the third position.
How do we conjugate English loanwords like downloaden?
They usually follow regular Dutch verb rules! The root of the verb is just the English word (download). Since the subject here is plural (we), we simply add the standard -en ending, giving us we downloaden.
What is the exact meaning of weinig here, and how is it different from klein or een beetje?