Breakdown of Zullen we in de grot graven? Misschien ligt de doos er!
in
in
misschien
maybe
zullen
shall / will
er
there (in that place)
liggen
to lie
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de doos
the box
de grot
the cave
graven
to dig
Questions & Answers about Zullen we in de grot graven? Misschien ligt de doos er!
What does er do at the end of the sentence?
It acts as an unstressed word for "there". It points back to the place just mentioned (de grot, the cave). If you wanted to strongly emphasize "there", you would use daar instead of er.
Why does the second sentence say ligt de doos instead of de doos ligt?
Because the sentence begins with the word Misschien (Maybe). In Dutch, when you start a sentence with anything other than the subject, the verb must stay in the second position. This forces the verb (ligt) and the subject (de doos) to swap places. This swap is called inversion.
Why use ligt instead of is to say the box "is" there?
Dutch prefers to use posture verbs like staan (to stand) or liggen (to lie) rather than zijn (to be) to say where physical objects are located. Because a box is usually flat and resting on its broad bottom, we say it "lies" (ligt) there.
Why is graven (to dig) at the very end of the first question?
The first sentence uses zullen (shall) as a helping verb. When a sentence has a helping verb, the main action verb (graven) is pushed all the way to the end of the clause.
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