Breakdown of Wij blijven bloemen planten, want de aarde is niet te droog.
zijn
to be
niet
not
wij
we
de bloem
flower
te
too
want
because
blijven
to stay
de aarde
the soil
droog
dry
planten
to plant
Questions & Answers about Wij blijven bloemen planten, want de aarde is niet te droog.
How do we use blijven to say "we keep planting"?
The verb blijven usually means "to stay" or "to remain". However, when you use it with the full dictionary form of another verb (an infinitive like planten), it means you keep doing that action. So, wij blijven ... planten means "we keep planting".
Why is bloemen placed between blijven and planten?
In Dutch, when you have two verbs working together in a main clause, they split up. The conjugated verb (blijven) takes the normal second position in the sentence, while the infinitive verb (planten) gets pushed to the very end. Any objects, like bloemen (flowers), get sandwiched between them.
I learned that aarde means "Earth". Can it also mean "soil"?
Yes! Just like the English word "earth", the Dutch word aarde can refer to the planet we live on, but it is also the standard word for "soil" or "dirt" on the ground. Given the context of planting flowers, "soil" is the most natural translation here.
Why does the word order stay normal after the word want?
The word want (because) is a linking word that connects two normal sentences together without changing their word order. That is why de aarde is niet te droog keeps the standard Subject-Verb order. If you had used omdat (which also means "because"), it would have pushed the verb is to the very end of the sentence!
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