Breakdown of De schoonmaker stoft de woonkamer netjes af.
de woonkamer
the living room
de schoonmaker
the cleaner
afstoffen
to dust
netjes
neatly
Questions & Answers about De schoonmaker stoft de woonkamer netjes af.
Why is de woonkamer placed before netjes?
This showcases an important word order rule! Because de woonkamer is a definite object (we are talking about a specific living room), it must come before the adverb of manner netjes. If the cleaner were dusting an indefinite object, like een kamer (a room), it would follow the adverb: De schoonmaker stoft netjes een kamer af.
Why is the word af sitting at the very end of the sentence?
It belongs to the verb afstoffen (to dust). This is a separable verb. In a standard main clause, the conjugated part (stoft) takes the second position in the sentence, and the prefix (af) gets kicked to the very end.
Why do we use netjes instead of just net for neatly?
While net can mean neat, Dutch speakers almost always add -jes to create netjes when using it as an adverb to mean neatly, nicely, or properly. It sounds much more natural and conversational in this context.