Breakdown of Wij hebben daar zorgvuldig in gezocht, maar we hebben niets gevonden.
maar
but
daar
there
wij
we
hebben
to have
Questions & Answers about Wij hebben daar zorgvuldig in gezocht, maar we hebben niets gevonden.
Why are daar and in separated by zorgvuldig?
daar and in form the pronominal adverb daarin (in there). In Dutch, it is very common to split these words. You place the first part (daar) earlier in the sentence and the preposition part (in) later, often right before the verbs at the end of the clause. Adverbs like zorgvuldig (carefully) usually go right between the split parts!
Can I keep them together and say Wij hebben daarin zorgvuldig gezocht?
No, that word order sounds unnatural. If you want to keep daarin together, it usually comes after the adverb: Wij hebben zorgvuldig daarin gezocht. However, splitting it into daar ... in is the most natural and common way to phrase this in Dutch.
Why doesn't maar send the verb to the end of the second half of the sentence?
maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction. Words like en (and), maar (but), and of (or) connect two main clauses without changing the word order. Because of this, we hebben niets gevonden keeps the normal subject-verb order, unlike sentences starting with words like omdat or dat.
Why are we using in here instead of naar, which is usually paired with zoeken?