Word
De stad wordt uitgebreid omdat er steeds meer inwoners komen.
Meaning
The city is being expanded because more and more inhabitants are coming.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De stad wordt uitgebreid omdat er steeds meer inwoners komen.
de stad
the city
komen
to come
worden
to become
er
there (existential)
Questions & Answers about De stad wordt uitgebreid omdat er steeds meer inwoners komen.
How does steeds meer translate to "more and more"?
In Dutch, you express an ongoing increase or progressive change by using steeds followed by the comparative form of the adjective or adverb. You do not repeat the word like we do in English. So steeds meer literally means "constantly more", which we translate as "more and more".
Why use wordt uitgebreid instead of is uitgebreid?
wordt (from worden) makes this a passive sentence where the action is currently ongoing: "is being expanded". If you used is uitgebreid, it would mean the action was already finished and the city "has been expanded".
Why is the past participle uitgebreid and not geuitbreid?
The infinitive is uitbreiden (to expand), which is a separable verb (uit + breiden). When forming the past participle of a separable verb, the ge- gets placed right between the prefix and the main verb.
Why do we need the word er after omdat?
er acts as a placeholder subject here, similar to "there" in the English phrase "there are more inhabitants coming". Dutch requires this structure when the actual subject (steeds meer inwoners) introduces a new, indefinite amount of people or things.