Breakdown of Of de sollicitant praat vloeiend Nederlands, of hij leert de taal snel.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
leren
to learn
Nederlands
Dutch
snel
fast
praten
to talk
of
or
de taal
the language
de sollicitant
the applicant
vloeiend
fluent / fluently
Questions & Answers about Of de sollicitant praat vloeiend Nederlands, of hij leert de taal snel.
Does the phrase of ... of change the sentence structure?
No, it doesn't. Because of is a coordinating conjunction (like en or maar), it connects two equal parts without changing their word order. Notice how both halves keep the standard Subject-Verb order: de sollicitant praat and hij leert.
I learned that "of" pushes the verb to the end of the sentence. Why doesn't that happen here?
You are thinking of of when it is used to mean "if" or "whether" (for example: I don't know whether he is coming). When of means "or"—and when of ... of means "either ... or"—it does not push the verb to the end.
Why is it vloeiend Nederlands and not vloeiende Nederlands?
All languages in Dutch are het-words (het Nederlands, het Engels). When you put an adjective before a het-word that doesn't have a specific article (like het, dit, or dat) in front of it, the adjective does not get an -e at the end.
Why is snel at the very end of the sentence, rather than right after the verb?
In Dutch, if you have a specific direct object—one that uses "the" or "this"—it generally comes before an adverb of manner (a word describing how something is done). Because de taal (the language) is a specific object, the adverb snel (quickly) must come after it.
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