Word
We oefenen niet alleen het ritme, maar we luisteren ook naar klassieke muziek.
Meaning
We not only practice the rhythm, but we also listen to classical music.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of We oefenen niet alleen het ritme, maar we luisteren ook naar klassieke muziek.
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
niet
not
maar
but
naar
to
Questions & Answers about We oefenen niet alleen het ritme, maar we luisteren ook naar klassieke muziek.
Does the phrase niet alleen ... maar change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, it doesn't! The word maar is a coordinating conjunction, which is just a fancy way of saying it glues two normal sentences together without mixing up their word order. After maar, the second part starts with regular word order (subject then verb): we luisteren.
Why are maar and ook separated from each other?
While they work together to mean 'but also', they usually don't sit right next to each other in Dutch. maar has to go at the very beginning of the new clause to connect the two thoughts. ook acts as an adverb, so it follows the normal rules for adverbs and is placed after the verb (luisteren).
Why is there an -e on the end of klassieke?
The base word is klassiek (classical). We add the -e ending because it comes right before the noun muziek, which is a de-word (de muziek). At the A2 level, remember that adjectives placed directly in front of a noun almost always get this -e ending.
Why do we need the word naar before klassieke muziek?