Word
Hij geeft de indruk dat hij arrogant is, maar dat klopt niet.
Meaning
He gives the impression that he is arrogant, but that is not correct.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij geeft de indruk dat hij arrogant is, maar dat klopt niet.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
maar
but
Questions & Answers about Hij geeft de indruk dat hij arrogant is, maar dat klopt niet.
Since this lesson is about verbs like lijken and schijnen, how could we rewrite this sentence using one of them?
Because "he gives the impression" is based on visual evidence or personal observation, lijken (to seem/appear) is the perfect fit. You could simply say: Hij lijkt arrogant, maar dat klopt niet. If your impression was instead based on gossip or what other people told you, you would use schijnen: Hij schijnt arrogant te zijn...
Why is the verb is at the end of the phrase dat hij arrogant is?
The word dat (that) introduces a subordinate clause. As a rule in Dutch, subordinate clauses push the conjugated verb (in this case, is) to the very end of the clause.
Doesn't kloppen mean "to knock"? Why is it translated as "correct" here?
You are right that kloppen literally means "to knock" (like on a door) or "to beat" (like a heart). However, dat klopt is also an extremely common Dutch expression that means "that is correct" or "that's right".
Why does the word dat appear twice, and do both instances mean the same thing?
They translate to the same English word ("that"), but they do different jobs in the sentence. The first dat (dat hij arrogant is) is a conjunction linking the clauses together. The second dat (maar dat klopt niet) is a demonstrative pronoun meaning "that thing or idea". It acts as the subject for the final part of the sentence, pointing back to the assumption that he is arrogant.