Breakdown of De man met wie ik date, voelt zich een beetje ziek.
ik
I
de man
the man
met
with
wie
who
een beetje
a bit
zich voelen
to feel
ziek
sick
daten
to date
Questions & Answers about De man met wie ik date, voelt zich een beetje ziek.
Why do we say met wie instead of just die?
In English you usually say 'the man I am dating', but in Dutch the verb is daten met (to date with). When a relative clause refers to a person and needs a preposition like met, you must use the preposition + wie. It translates literally as 'the man with whom I date'.
Why does the verb voelt come immediately after the comma?
This is the Dutch verb-second rule in action. The entire chunk De man met wie ik date acts as the subject of the sentence, taking up the first position. The main verb voelt must take the second position, so it comes right after the comma.
Why is the word zich used here?
In Dutch, the verb for 'to feel' (when talking about your health or emotions) is the reflexive verb zich voelen. Since we are talking about de man (a 'he'), the matching reflexive pronoun is zich.
Is date treated like a normal Dutch verb here?
Yes, daten is an English loanword but it follows standard Dutch rules. Because ik date is inside a relative clause, the verb is pushed to the end of that clause. It only looks like normal subject-verb word order because the clause is so short.
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