Breakdown of Het was deze toren die in de storm instortte.
zijn
to be
in
in
deze
this / these
het
it
de toren
the tower
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
de storm
the storm
instorten
to collapse
Questions & Answers about Het was deze toren die in de storm instortte.
Why do we use die instead of dat for "that" in this sentence?
In this cleft sentence structure, the word for "that" is a relative pronoun linking back to the emphasized noun. Because toren is a de-word (de toren), we must use die. If you were emphasizing a het-word, like het gebouw (the building), you would use dat: Het was dit gebouw dat instortte.
Why is the verb instortte pushed to the very end of the sentence?
The cleft structure splits the information into a main clause (Het was deze toren) and a relative clause (die in de storm instortte). A relative clause acts like a subordinate clause, which forces its conjugated verb all the way to the end.
The verb for "to collapse" is instorten, which is separable. Why isn't it split up here?
When a separable verb is pushed to the end of a subordinate or relative clause, the prefix and the core verb stick together. If this were a simple main clause, it would split: De toren stortte in de storm in (The tower collapsed in the storm). But here, the relative clause structure keeps in and stortte joined as one word.
Why is it deze toren and not dit toren?
Toren is a de-word. When saying "this", you use deze for all de-words. You only use dit for singular het-words (like dit huis for "this house").
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