Breakdown of Waarop teken jij met het potlood?
jij
you
met
with
tekenen
to draw
waarop
on what
het potlood
the pencil
Questions & Answers about Waarop teken jij met het potlood?
Why does this sentence use waarop instead of op wat for "on what"?
In Dutch, when you ask a question about a non-living thing using a preposition (like op, meaning "on"), you usually cannot say op wat. Instead, you combine waar with the preposition. So, "on what" becomes waarop (literally "where-on").
Can I split waarop into two words in this sentence?
Yes, you can! In everyday Dutch, it is actually more common to split these words. You could say Waar teken jij op met het potlood? or Waar teken jij met het potlood op? When split, waar stays at the front, and op moves further back.
Why is the verb teken missing its -t ending here?
Normally, the "you" form of a verb gets a -t added to the stem (like jij tekent). But there is a special rule: when jij or je comes directly after the verb (which happens in questions), that -t is dropped. That is why it is teken jij.
Why use jij instead of je in this sentence?
Jij is the emphatic form of je. You use it when you want to put special stress on the person. In this context, it translates roughly to "What are you drawing on with the pencil?" as opposed to someone else. If you don't need that extra emphasis, je is perfectly fine.
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