Breakdown of Het boren van de buurman is vervelend.
zijn
to be
het
it
de buurman
the neighbor (male)
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
Questions & Answers about Het boren van de buurman is vervelend.
Why does the verb boren have het in front of it?
Boren is the infinitive (the basic dictionary form) of the verb 'to drill'. In Dutch, you can turn any infinitive into a noun to talk about the activity itself. When you do this, it is always a neuter noun, which means it always takes the article het. This is very similar to how English uses the '-ing' form (the drilling).
Could I say de buurmans boren instead of het boren van de buurman?
Technically yes, but it sounds very unnatural. When talking about an activity (a noun made from a verb), Dutch strongly prefers using van to show who is doing it. You will almost always hear het [activity] van [person], literally 'the drilling of the neighbor'.
Why doesn't the adjective vervelend get an -e at the end?
Adjectives only get an added -e when they are placed directly in front of the noun they describe (like in een vervelende buurman). Because vervelend comes after the verb is in this sentence, it stays in its basic dictionary form.
Can boren also be a regular plural noun?
Yes! De boor means 'the drill' (the physical tool), and its plural is de boren (the drills). You can tell from the context and the article het that this sentence is talking about the activity of drilling, not a collection of tools.