Breakdown of Hij stoft vandaag een bureau af.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
een
a/an
vandaag
today
het bureau
desk
Questions & Answers about Hij stoft vandaag een bureau af.
Why does the time word vandaag come before the object een bureau?
This is the main rule from this lesson! The phrase een bureau (a desk) is an indefinite direct object because it uses een (a). In the middle of a Dutch sentence, indefinite objects usually come after adverbs of time like vandaag. If he were dusting a specific desk (het bureau), the definite object would move before the time adverb: Hij stoft het bureau vandaag af.
Why is the word af sitting at the very end of the sentence?
The verb being used here is afstoffen (to dust off), which is a separable verb. In a standard main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (stoft) takes the second position in the sentence, and the prefix (af) gets pushed all the way to the end.
The English translation says "He is dusting", so why doesn't the Dutch sentence use a form of zijn (to be)?
Unlike English, Dutch frequently uses the simple present tense to express actions happening right now. Hij stoft af naturally translates to both "He dusts" and "He is dusting" depending on what makes the most sense in the English context.
Could I just use the verb stoffen without the af here?
You can use the basic verb stoffen to talk about the general household chore of dusting. However, when you mention the specific object being cleaned (like een bureau), Dutch usually requires the separable verb afstoffen (to dust off).