Word
De rechercheur vraagt wat de dief doet.
Meaning
The detective asks what the thief is doing.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De rechercheur vraagt wat de dief doet.
wat
what
doen
to do
vragen
to ask
de rechercheur
the detective
Questions & Answers about De rechercheur vraagt wat de dief doet.
Why is doet at the very end of the sentence?
This is the core of an indirect question! When you embed a question inside another sentence (like 'The detective asks what...'), the question word (wat) pushes the verb in that part of the sentence all the way to the end.
What would the word order be if the detective asked the question directly?
In a direct question, the verb comes right after the question word: Wat doet de dief? But because it is an indirect question here, the verb doet moves to the end: ...wat de dief doet.
Why is doet translated as 'is doing' instead of 'does'?
Dutch uses the simple present tense much more often than English. The single word doet translates to both 'does' and 'is doing'. The context tells us the detective is asking about an action happening right now.
The word rechercheur looks French. How do you say it?
It is indeed a French loanword used for a detective or police investigator. It is pronounced roughly like 'ruh-sher-SHUR'. If you just want to talk about a regular police officer, you can use the word politieagent.