Breakdown of Zij blijven onkruid uit de tuin halen.
zij
they
uit
out of / from
halen
to fetch / to get
blijven
to stay
de tuin
the garden
het onkruid
the weeds
Questions & Answers about Zij blijven onkruid uit de tuin halen.
How does blijven mean "keep" in this sentence?
The verb blijven usually means "to stay". However, when you use it with another verb in its full dictionary form (the infinitive, like halen here), it means "to keep doing" that action. So blijven ... halen means "keep pulling".
Why is halen at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you have a helping verb (blijven) and a main verb (halen), the conjugated helping verb takes the second position in the sentence. The main verb gets pushed all the way to the end. The extra information (onkruid uit de tuin) gets sandwiched between them.
How do we know zij means "they" and not "she"?
You can tell by looking at the verb! Because the verb is the plural form blijven, zij must mean "they". If it meant "she", the verb would be the singular form: zij blijft.
In English we say "weeds" (plural). Why doesn't onkruid have a plural ending?
In Dutch, onkruid is treated as a singular, uncountable noun, similar to how we use words like "grass" or "gravel" in English. You use it to refer to all the weeds collectively.
Does halen always mean "to pull"?
No, halen usually means "to get", "to fetch", or "to take". When you get weeds out of a garden (uit de tuin halen), you are removing them. In English, we naturally call this "pulling weeds", but Dutch literally says "getting weeds out of the garden".
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