Word
Het plafond dat hij ontwerpt, is erg laag.
Meaning
The ceiling that he is designing is very low.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het plafond dat hij ontwerpt, is erg laag.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
erg
very / really
laag
low
Questions & Answers about Het plafond dat hij ontwerpt, is erg laag.
Why do we use dat instead of die for "that" in this sentence?
In Dutch, the relative pronoun (the word for "that" or "which") depends on the article of the noun it points back to. Because plafond is a het-word (het plafond), we must use dat. If it were a de-word or a plural noun, we would use die.
Why does the verb ontwerpt come at the end of the phrase dat hij ontwerpt?
The phrase dat hij ontwerpt is a relative clause, which is a type of subordinate clause (a dependent sentence part that gives extra information). In Dutch subordinate clauses, the verb is always pushed to the very end. That is why it is dat hij ontwerpt and not dat ontwerpt hij.
Why are there two verbs right next to each other separated by a comma (ontwerpt, is)?
The entire phrase Het plafond dat hij ontwerpt acts as one big subject for the main sentence. In a normal Dutch sentence, the main verb must come in the second position. So we have [Subject: Het plafond dat hij ontwerpt] followed by [Verb 2nd position: is]. The comma helps visually separate the end of the sub-clause from the main verb.
Doesn't erg mean "terrible" or "bad"? Why does it mean "very" here?