Breakdown of Ontwerp jij het gebouw dat zij gaan bouwen?
jij
you
zij
they
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
het gebouw
the building
bouwen
to build
dat
that/which (relative pronoun)
ontwerpen
to design
Questions & Answers about Ontwerp jij het gebouw dat zij gaan bouwen?
Why does this sentence use dat instead of die for "that"?
Dat is the relative pronoun used to point back to singular het-words. Because the word for building is het gebouw, we must use dat. If it were a de-word or a plural word, you would use die.
Why are the verbs gaan and bouwen at the very end of the sentence?
The second half of the sentence (dat zij gaan bouwen) is a relative clause, which is a type of subclause. In Dutch subclauses, all verbs are pushed to the very end of the clause.
Why is it Ontwerp jij and not Ontwerpt jij?
When the pronoun jij (or je) comes directly after the verb, the verb drops the -t at the end. Since this is a yes/no question, the verb has to come first, triggering this spelling rule.
How can I tell that zij means "they" and not "she" in this sentence?
You can tell by looking at the verb next to it. The verb gaan is in the plural form. If zij meant "she", the verb would be singular: dat zij gaat bouwen.
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