Breakdown of Hij rent hard, zodat hij veel vet verbrandt.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
veel
much / many / a lot of
hard
loud / fast (forceful) / hard (with effort)
rennen
to run
Questions & Answers about Hij rent hard, zodat hij veel vet verbrandt.
Why is the verb verbrandt at the very end of the sentence?
The word zodat (so that) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause and pushes the working verb (verbrandt) to the very end of that clause.
The translation says he runs 'fast', but doesn't hard mean 'hard'?
Yes, hard can mean 'hard' or 'loud', but when talking about moving (like running, driving, or cycling), it means 'fast'. You could also say Hij rent snel, but hard rennen is a very natural and common way to say 'running fast' in Dutch.
Could I put veel vet after the verb, like we do in English?
No, because zodat changes the word order. In a normal main sentence you would say Hij verbrandt veel vet (He burns a lot of fat), but because zodat pushes the verb to the end, the verb must come after the object (veel vet).
Why does verbrandt end in '-dt'?
The full verb is verbranden (to burn). To get the 'he' form, you take the stem, which already ends in a 'd' (verbrand), and add a 't' for the hij form. That gives you the '-dt' spelling.