Word
De kust wordt bedreigd doordat de gletsjers smelten.
Meaning
The coast is threatened because the glaciers melt.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De kust wordt bedreigd doordat de gletsjers smelten.
worden
to become
doordat
because of the fact that / because (cause)
smelten
to melt
de gletsjer
the glacier
Questions & Answers about De kust wordt bedreigd doordat de gletsjers smelten.
Why use doordat instead of omdat here?
Doordat specifically points to a direct, objective cause or a physical reality, like the melting glaciers causing a threat to the coast. Omdat is mostly used for subjective reasons or personal motivations. For strict natural cause-and-effect events like this one, doordat is the best choice.
Why is the verb smelten at the very end of the sentence?
The word doordat is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause, which forces the conjugated verb in that part of the sentence (smelten) to move to the very end.
Why does the Dutch sentence use wordt instead of is for the phrase is threatened?
This sentence is in the passive voice, describing an ongoing situation. While English uses the verb to be for this, Dutch uses worden (to become) plus a past participle (bedreigd) for ongoing passive actions. If you said is bedreigd, it would mean the coast has already been threatened in the past, rather than it happening right now.
How do we know bedreigd ends with a -d and doesn't get a ge- prefix?