Breakdown of Nadat de vrouw haar haar laat verven, gaat ze naar het feest.
de vrouw
the woman
naar
to
het feest
the party
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
haar
her
het haar
the hair
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
nadat
after
laten
to have (something) done
verven
to dye/paint
Questions & Answers about Nadat de vrouw haar haar laat verven, gaat ze naar het feest.
Why do we use laat verven here instead of just saying she dyes it?
The verb laten is used to say you are having something done by someone else. Here, laat verven means she is having her hair dyed by a hairdresser, rather than dyeing it herself. You form this by using the conjugated form of laten and putting the action verb (verven) as an infinitive at the end of the clause.
Why does the sentence say haar haar? Is that a typo?
It is not a typo! The first haar is the possessive pronoun meaning "her," and the second haar is the noun meaning "hair." So haar haar translates perfectly to "her hair." They just happen to be spelled and pronounced exactly the same in Dutch.
Why are both verbs (laat verven) at the very end of the first part of the sentence?
The word nadat (after) introduces a subordinate (dependent) clause. In Dutch, subordinate clauses push all the verbs to the very end. So instead of keeping laat in the middle, both verbs group together at the end as laat verven.
Why does the second part say gaat ze instead of ze gaat?
This happens because of the Dutch "verb second" rule. The entire first part of the sentence (Nadat de vrouw haar haar laat verven) counts as the first piece of information. To keep the main verb in the second position, the verb gaat must come next, pushing the subject (ze) to the other side of it.
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