Hij blijft snoeien, want de takken zijn te lang.
He keeps pruning, because the branches are too long.
Breakdown of Hij blijft snoeien, want de takken zijn te lang.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
te
too
want
because
Questions & Answers about Hij blijft snoeien, want de takken zijn te lang.
Why use blijft to mean "keeps"? Doesn't blijven mean "to stay"?
You are right that blijven usually means "to stay". However, when you use blijven combined with another verb in its full dictionary form (the infinitive, like snoeien), it means "to keep doing" that action. So, Hij blijft snoeien means "He keeps pruning" or "He continues to prune".
If I wanted to say "He keeps pruning the trees", where would the infinitive snoeien go?
The second verb (snoeien) is always pushed to the very end of the clause. So you would put the object in the middle: Hij blijft de bomen snoeien.
Why is the word order normal after want? Shouldn't the verb go to the end?
The word want (because) is a coordinating conjunction, which means it links two main sentences together without changing their word order. The structure stays Subject-Verb: de takken zijn.... If you used omdat (which also means "because"), the verb would get pushed to the end: omdat de takken te lang zijn.
Why is takken spelled with a double 'k' when the singular is just tak?