Breakdown of Het is de ondeugende kat die krabt en bijt.
zijn
to be
en
and
de kat
the cat
het
it
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
ondeugend
mischievous
krabben
to scratch
bijten
to bite
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?
This follows standard Dutch spelling rules. To get the stem of krabben, we take off the -en, leaving us with a double consonant (krabb). Dutch words never end in double consonants, so we drop one b to get the stem krab. Then we just add the -t for the singular form, giving us krabt.
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