Breakdown of Niemand mag op het terrein komen, behalve het personeel.
op
on
komen
to come
mogen
to be allowed to / may
niemand
no one
Questions & Answers about Niemand mag op het terrein komen, behalve het personeel.
Can behalve be placed somewhere else in this sentence?
Yes! While it often sits comfortably at the very end of the sentence (after all verbs) to emphasize the exception, you could also say Niemand behalve het personeel mag op het terrein komen. Placing it at the end like in the example is very common and natural in spoken Dutch.
Why use komen here instead of a word for 'enter' like binnenkomen or betreden?
Komen is the most natural, everyday way to express coming onto an open area like a site or grounds (het terrein). Binnenkomen usually implies going physically inside a building, and betreden is a formal word you mostly see on written warning signs.
Why are mag and komen separated?
This is the standard Dutch sentence structure with modal verbs. Mag (is allowed to) takes the second position in the sentence, while the main verb komen gets pushed to the end of that clause. The phrase behalve het personeel is then safely added after the main verb as an exception.
Is personeel plural or singular?
It is singular. Just like 'the staff' in English, het personeel is a collective noun that refers to a group of workers, but grammatically it acts as a singular neuter word.