Breakdown of Ik ben het plafond dat kapot is aan het repareren.
ik
I
zijn
to be
aan
on / at (attached to, edge)
repareren
to repair
kapot
broken
dat
that/which (relative pronoun)
het plafond
the ceiling
Questions & Answers about Ik ben het plafond dat kapot is aan het repareren.
Why do we use dat instead of die here?
We use dat because it refers back to het plafond. When a relative clause points back to a singular het-word, you must use dat as the word for 'that' or 'which'. If it were a de-word or a plural noun, you would use die instead.
Why does the verb is go at the end of dat kapot is?
The phrase dat kapot is is a relative clause (a mini-sentence that gives extra information about a noun). In Dutch, relative clauses follow subordinate word order, which means all verbs inside that clause get pushed to the very end.
Why is the continuous 'I am repairing' phrase split up, with aan het repareren at the very end of the sentence?
This is how the Dutch continuous tense works. It uses a conjugated form of zijn (here: ben) in the normal second position of the sentence, but the aan het + infinitive (repareren) gets pushed to the end. The object being repaired—which is het plafond along with its descriptive clause—gets sandwiched in the middle.
It feels confusing to interrupt the main sentence with dat kapot is. Can I put it at the very end instead?
Yes, you can! While it is perfectly correct to put the relative clause right next to the noun it describes (as in this sentence), Dutch often allows you to move relative clauses to the very end if keeping them in the middle makes the sentence feel too interrupted. So, saying Ik ben het plafond aan het repareren dat kapot is is also correct and very common.
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