Breakdown of De advocaat die ons project steunt, heeft veel ervaring.
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
ons
our
het project
the project
Questions & Answers about De advocaat die ons project steunt, heeft veel ervaring.
Why do we use die here to mean "who"?
In Dutch, the relative pronoun (the word for "who", "which", or "that" linking back to a noun) depends on the noun's article. Because advocaat is a de-word, we use die. If it were a singular het-word, we would use dat.
Why is the verb steunt at the end of the first part of the sentence?
The phrase die ons project steunt is a relative clause, which is a type of subclause. In Dutch subclauses, verbs are always pushed to the very end.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb heeft?
This is the verb-second rule in action. The entire first chunk of the sentence (De advocaat die ons project steunt) acts as a single subject block filling the first position. To keep the main verb in the second position, heeft must come immediately after the comma.
Why does the sentence use ons project instead of onze project?
Because project is a het-word (het project). When a noun is a singular het-word, the Dutch word for "our" is ons. If it were a de-word or a plural noun, you would need to use onze.