Breakdown of De rechter die de fout ontdekt, is heel streng.
zijn
to be
heel
very
streng
strict
de fout
the mistake
ontdekken
to discover
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
de rechter
the judge
Questions & Answers about De rechter die de fout ontdekt, is heel streng.
Why do we use die to mean 'who'? Shouldn't it be wie?
In Dutch, when you point back to a person or thing to give more information about it, you usually don't use wie. Instead, you use die for de-words and plurals, and dat for het-words. Because it is de rechter, we use die.
Why is ontdekt placed after de fout instead of right after die?
The phrase die de fout ontdekt is a relative clause (it adds extra info about the judge). Relative clauses act like subclauses in Dutch, meaning the working verb (ontdekt) gets pushed to the very end of that specific clause.
Why does the main verb is come right after the comma?
Dutch sentences follow a 'verb second' rule. The entire first chunk, De rechter die de fout ontdekt, acts as one big subject (the first idea). Therefore, the main verb is must be the second idea in the sentence, coming immediately after that whole subject.
I learned that fout means 'wrong'. How does it mean 'mistake' here?
Fout can be used as an adjective meaning 'wrong'. However, it is also a noun, de fout, which means 'the mistake' or 'the error'.
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