Breakdown of Mijn oogst mislukt doordat de droogte te lang duurt.
te
too
mijn
my
duren
to last / to take time
lang
long
doordat
because of the fact that / because (cause)
de oogst
the harvest
mislukken
to fail (be unsuccessful)
de droogte
the drought
Questions & Answers about Mijn oogst mislukt doordat de droogte te lang duurt.
Why does this sentence use doordat instead of omdat?
In Dutch, doordat is used for an objective cause, meaning a direct physical cause-and-effect where no human decision or reasoning is involved. A drought ruining a harvest is purely a force of nature. If you were giving a reason for a personal decision or motivation, you would usually use omdat.
Why is the verb duurt pushed to the very end of the sentence?
Doordat is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause (a sub-clause). In Dutch sub-clauses, the conjugated verb is always pushed to the end.
I recognize droog in droogte. Is adding -te a standard way to make nouns?
Yes! Adding -te to an adjective is a very common way to turn it into a noun, similar to adding '-ness' or '-th' in English. Droog means 'dry', and droogte means 'drought' or 'dryness'. Another example is groot (big) becoming grootte (size).
Does the word mislukt have the same mis- prefix we use in English?
Yes, the prefix mis- in Dutch means 'wrong' or 'badly', just like in English words such as 'misunderstand'. The base verb here is lukken (to succeed). By adding mis-, it turns into mislukken (to fail).
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