Word
Het is de ondeugende kat die krabt en bijt.
Meaning
It is the mischievous cat that scratches and bites.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Het is de ondeugende kat die krabt en bijt.
Why do we use die instead of dat for 'that' in this sentence?
In cleft sentences like this ('It is X that...'), the word for 'that' is a relative pronoun pointing back to the noun it emphasizes. Because kat is a de word (de kat), we must use die. If we were emphasizing a het word, like het dier (the animal), we would use dat instead.
Why does ondeugende get an -e at the end?
When an adjective comes directly before a noun, it usually gets an -e ending. The only time you don't add the -e is when the noun is a singular het word preceded by een, geen, or no article. Since kat is a de word, ondeugend (mischievous) becomes ondeugende.
How do we know which verb conjugation to use for krabt and bijt?
The verbs come after the relative pronoun die, which stands in for de kat. Since de kat is a singular third-person noun ('he/she/it'), we use the stem + t form for both krabben (to scratch) and bijten (to bite).
Why is there only one b in krabt when the infinitive is krabben?