Breakdown of De man was de dure camera aan het repareren.
zijn
to be
de man
the man
duur
expensive
aan
on / at (attached to, edge)
Questions & Answers about De man was de dure camera aan het repareren.
Why is de dure camera in the middle of the sentence instead of at the end?
In Dutch, when you use the past continuous structure (was/waren aan het + infinitive), the object of the sentence usually goes between the verb was and the aan het part. You cannot say "was aan het repareren de dure camera" like you would in English.
Why does the word duur (expensive) become dure here?
Camera is a de word. When an adjective comes before a noun with de, it gets an extra -e at the end. When we add this -e, the spelling changes from duur to dure to keep the "u" sound long, following Dutch spelling rules.
What does aan het literally mean in this sentence?
Literally, it means "at the" or "on the", as if the man was "at the repairing" of the camera. The whole structure was aan het + infinitive is simply the standard Dutch way to say someone "was doing" an ongoing action in the past.
How would the sentence change if it were "The men were repairing the expensive camera"?
It would become De mannen waren de dure camera aan het repareren. The noun changes to the plural mannen and the verb changes to the plural waren, but the aan het repareren part stays exactly the same.