Breakdown of Het is het ondeugende dier dat het snoer pakt.
zijn
to be
pakken
to take
het dier
animal
het
it
dat
that/which (relative pronoun)
ondeugend
mischievous
het snoer
the cord
Questions & Answers about Het is het ondeugende dier dat het snoer pakt.
Why do we use dat instead of die to connect the sentence here?
In a cleft sentence like this, the connecting word acts as a relative pronoun and must match the gender of the noun it points back to. Because dier is a het word (neuter), we use dat. If the focal point were a de word (like de hond), we would use die.
Why does ondeugende end in an -e if dier is a het word?
You only drop the -e on the adjective for het words when the noun is indefinite (for example, when using een or no article). Because this sentence uses the definite article het (the), the adjective gets the standard -e ending: het ondeugende dier. If it were "a mischievous animal", it would be een ondeugend dier.
Why is the verb pakt placed at the very end of the sentence?
The second half of a cleft sentence (dat het snoer pakt) is a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, all conjugated verbs are pushed to the end of their clause. That is why the sentence isn't phrased as "dat pakt het snoer".
Could I use neemt instead of pakt here?
You could, as both can translate to "takes", but pakt (from pakken) is much more natural here. Pakken implies physically grabbing, snatching, or seizing something. This perfectly matches the physical action of a mischievous animal, whereas nemen is a more abstract or neutral way to say "take".
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