Word
Hij weigert te helpen, wat mij stoort.
Meaning
He refuses to help, which bothers me.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij weigert te helpen, wat mij stoort.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
helpen
to help
mij
me
te
to (infinitive marker)
Questions & Answers about Hij weigert te helpen, wat mij stoort.
Why do we use wat here for "which" instead of die or dat?
In Dutch, you use wat when the relative pronoun refers back to an entire preceding clause or situation, rather than a specific noun. Here, wat refers to the whole fact that Hij weigert te helpen (He refuses to help). If it referred to a specific noun, you would use die for a de-word or dat for a het-word.
Why is the verb stoort at the very end of the sentence?
The word wat introduces a relative clause. In Dutch, relative clauses follow subordinate clause word order. This means that all verbs in that part of the sentence get pushed to the end, which is why stoort comes after mij.
Why is there a te before helpen?
The verb weigeren (to refuse) requires the word te when it is followed by another verb in the infinitive. It works just like the English "to": he refuses to help (hij weigert te helpen).
I've seen storen used for "disturb". Does it mean "bother" here?
Yes, storen can mean both "to disturb" (like interrupting someone's work) and "to bother" or "to annoy". In this context, wat mij stoort translates perfectly to "which bothers me" or "which annoys me".