Breakdown of Het sollicitatiegesprek dat wij gisteren hadden, liet zijn echte motivatie niet zien.
niet
not
wij
we
hebben
to have
zien
to see
zijn
his
gisteren
yesterday
echt
real; really (genuinely)
dat
that/which (relative pronoun)
laten
to have (something) done
het sollicitatiegesprek
the job interview
de motivatie
the motivation
Questions & Answers about Het sollicitatiegesprek dat wij gisteren hadden, liet zijn echte motivatie niet zien.
This lesson is about verbs like blijken (to turn out). Could we use blijken in this sentence instead of liet ... zien?
Yes! You could rephrase this to focus on the evidence rather than the action of showing: Uit het sollicitatiegesprek bleek zijn echte motivatie niet (From the interview, his real motivation did not become evident). Laten zien is an active 'to show', while blijken is often used when facts or motivations 'turn out' to be true or reveal themselves.
Why does the sentence use dat instead of die for 'that'?
Dat is the relative pronoun used for het-words. Because it is het gesprek (and therefore het sollicitatiegesprek), we must use dat to say 'that we had'. If the noun were a de-word, you would use die.
How does the word order work with liet and zien being so far apart?
The verb here is laten zien (to show), which is a separable verb. The entire phrase Het sollicitatiegesprek dat wij gisteren hadden acts as the subject and takes up the first position. The conjugated verb liet takes the second position, and the separated part zien is pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why does echte get an -e at the end?
Motivatie is a de-word (de motivatie). When an adjective comes before a noun, it gets an -e ending by default. The only time you drop the -e is if it is a het-word preceded by an indefinite word like een or geen.
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