Breakdown of De jongen aan wie ik mijn hart geef, is mijn grote liefde.
ik
I
zijn
to be
de jongen
the boy
groot
big
wie
who
mijn
my
geven
to give
aan
to (recipient)
het hart
the heart
de liefde
the love
Questions & Answers about De jongen aan wie ik mijn hart geef, is mijn grote liefde.
Why do we use aan wie instead of just die or wie here?
When a describing phrase (a relative clause) refers to a person and involves a preposition like aan (to), Dutch requires you to put the preposition first, followed by wie. While in English we often put the preposition at the end ('The boy I give my heart to'), Dutch works like the formal English 'The boy to whom I give my heart.'
Could I split the preposition and pronoun, like we do in English?
No, when referring to people, the preposition and wie must stay together as aan wie. You cannot say de jongen wie ik mijn hart aan geef. Note: If you were talking about a thing instead of a person, you would use a split structure with waar, like het goede doel waar ik geld aan geef (the charity I give money to).
Why is the verb geef at the end of the phrase, right before the comma?
The phrase aan wie ik mijn hart geef is a relative subclause because it gives more information about De jongen. In Dutch subclauses, the conjugated verb (geef) is always pushed to the very end of that clause.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb is?
This is because of the Dutch V2 (verb second) rule. The entire first chunk of the sentence, De jongen aan wie ik mijn hart geef, acts as the subject. Since that whole block takes up the first position, the main verb is must come immediately after it to take the second position.
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