Breakdown of Hij wil het teruggeven, maar hij is daar nog niet mee begonnen.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
maar
but
daar
there
beginnen
to begin
willen
to want
het
it
nog
still, yet / more, another (with a quantity)
mee
along, with (too)
teruggeven
to give back
Questions & Answers about Hij wil het teruggeven, maar hij is daar nog niet mee begonnen.
Why are daar and mee separated by nog niet?
daarmee (with it) is a pronominal adverb. In Dutch, these are very often split. When split, the first part (daar) acts like a placeholder earlier in the sentence, and the preposition part (mee) moves toward the end of the clause, right before the verb (begonnen). Adverbs like nog niet naturally sit between them.
Why do we use daar ... mee instead of translating 'with it' directly as met het?
In Dutch, you generally cannot combine a preposition like met with the pronoun het. Instead, the preposition changes into an adverb form (from met to mee) and pairs with a word like daar, er, or hier. This creates daarmee or the split version daar ... mee.
Why is it hij is ... begonnen instead of hij heeft ... begonnen?
The verb beginnen (to start) uses zijn (to be) as its auxiliary verb in the present perfect tense, rather than hebben (to have). Therefore, 'he has started' translates to hij is begonnen.
Why is teruggeven written as one word here when it is a separable verb?
Because it is used with the modal verb wil (wants), the full infinitive teruggeven is pushed to the end of the clause. Separable verbs are written as one word when they appear in their full infinitive form at the end of a sentence.
Does the word maar affect the word order of the second clause?
No, maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it connects two independent sentences together without changing the word order. The second clause just starts with standard subject-verb order: hij is.
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