Breakdown of Het gebouw stort in doordat het door de storm verwoest wordt.
worden
to become
het gebouw
the building
doordat
because of the fact that / because (cause)
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
verwoesten
to destroy
de storm
the storm
instorten
to collapse
Questions & Answers about Het gebouw stort in doordat het door de storm verwoest wordt.
Could I use omdat instead of doordat in this sentence?
While Dutch speakers do sometimes mix them up in casual speech, doordat is the grammatically correct choice here. doordat is used for a direct, physical cause-and-effect that happens outside of human control (the storm forces the building to collapse). omdat is typically used for subjective reasons or human motivations.
Why is the word in placed right before the comma?
It is part of the separable verb instorten (to collapse). In a main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (stort) takes the second position, and the separable prefix (in) gets pushed to the very end of that clause, right before the comma.
Why are both verwoest and wordt pushed to the end of the sentence?
doordat is a subordinating conjunction, which forces all verbs in its clause to the end. Since this second half of the sentence is in the passive voice (is destroyed), both the past participle verwoest and the helping verb wordt must stack up together at the end.
Is the word door in door de storm related to doordat?
They share the same root word, but they serve different grammatical functions here. In the phrase door de storm, door simply means by and introduces the agent of the passive voice (destroyed by the storm). doordat is a fixed conjunction meaning due to the fact that.
Learn Het gebouw stort in doordat het door de storm verwoest wordt and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free