Breakdown of Sinds de komst van de baas werken we sneller.
werken
to work
snel
fast
de baas
the boss
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
sinds
since
de komst
the arrival
Questions & Answers about Sinds de komst van de baas werken we sneller.
The lesson is about sinds as a conjunction, but here it is followed by a noun phrase. How does that work?
While you are learning sinds as a conjunction that introduces a whole sub-clause with its own verb, it can also be used as a simple preposition followed by a noun. Just like in English, sinds de komst simply means "since the arrival" without needing an extra verb.
Why does the verb come before the subject (werken we instead of we werken)?
This is the classic V2 (verb-second) rule in action. Because the sentence starts with the long time phrase Sinds de komst van de baas, that entire phrase counts as position one. The main verb werken must take the second position, which pushes the subject we to the third position.
Is the noun komst related to the verb komen?
Yes! De komst means "the arrival" or "the coming" and is derived directly from komen (to come). You will sometimes see this -st ending added to verb stems to create nouns in Dutch, such as de winst (the profit) from winnen (to win).
Could I use vanaf instead of sinds here?
Yes, you could say vanaf de komst van de baas. They are very similar, but sinds (since) emphasizes that the situation has been ongoing continuously from a point in the past up to now, while vanaf (from) just neutrally marks the starting point of an event.
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