Breakdown of Het was de koning die het paleis bouwde, omdat hij van de koningin hield.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
houden van
to love / to like
het
it
Questions & Answers about Het was de koning die het paleis bouwde, omdat hij van de koningin hield.
Why do we use die here instead of dat for the word who?
In cleft sentences starting with Het was, the relative pronoun for who or that depends on the noun being emphasized. Because it refers back to de koning, which is a de-word, we must use die. If the sentence emphasized a het-word, we would use dat instead.
Why does the verb bouwde come after het paleis?
The word die introduces a relative clause. Just like with conjunctions such as omdat, a relative pronoun pushes the conjugated verb to the very end of its specific clause.
Why is the preposition van used before de koningin?
To say to love someone in Dutch, you use the verb houden van. The preposition van is an essential part of the phrase. Because omdat pushes the verb hield to the end of the sentence, it ends up placed after the phrase van de koningin.
Both bouwde and hield are singular past tense verbs. Why do they form the past tense so differently?