Breakdown of In plaats van te scrollen, ben ik liever offline.
ik
I
zijn
to be
liever
rather (prefer)
te
to (infinitive marker)
in plaats van
instead of
scrollen
to scroll
offline
offline
Questions & Answers about In plaats van te scrollen, ben ik liever offline.
Why do we use te before scrollen here?
This sentence uses a prepositional infinitive clause. When you want to say "instead of doing something" in Dutch, you use the structure in plaats van + te + the infinitive verb. Because there are no other words attached to the scrolling action, te scrollen comes right after in plaats van.
Why is the main clause inverted to ben ik instead of ik ben?
This is the V2 (verb second) rule in action. The entire opening clause In plaats van te scrollen counts as the first position in the sentence. Because the verb must come second, ben comes immediately after the comma, pushing the subject ik to the other side.
How does ben ik liever translate to "I prefer to be"?
Dutch rarely uses a direct verb for "to prefer". Instead, it uses graag (gladly) in its comparative form liever (rather). Literally, ben ik liever offline means "am I rather offline". Whenever you want to say you prefer doing something, you just use the verb for that action and add liever.
Are scrollen and offline real Dutch words?
Yes! Dutch has adopted many English technology terms. They are treated just like regular Dutch words, which means verbs like scrollen get standard Dutch conjugation (for example: ik scrol, hij scrolt, gescrold).
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