Breakdown of Dit is niet alleen een goed product, maar ook een goede investering.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
niet
not
Questions & Answers about Dit is niet alleen een goed product, maar ook een goede investering.
How does the structure niet alleen ..., maar ook ... affect word order compared to the addition words in this lesson?
This sentence uses the combination niet alleen (not only) and maar ook (but also). Unlike adverbial connectors such as bovendien or daarnaast which pull the verb forward (V2 inversion), maar is a coordinating conjunction. If you included the full subject and verb here (...maar dit is ook...), the word order would stay normal, without inversion.
Why is it goed product without an '-e', but goede investering with an '-e'?
This is a great reminder for adjective endings! Product is a neuter noun (a het-word). When a het-word follows the indefinite article een (a), the adjective does not get an -e at the end. However, investering is a common noun (a de-word), so its adjective always gets the -e ending to become goede.
Where are the subject and verb in the second half of the sentence?
They are left out because they are identical to the first half. The complete thought is ...maar [dit is] ook een goede investering. Leaving out repeated words like this is called ellipsis, and it works exactly the same way in Dutch as it does in English.
Why do we use Dit at the beginning of the sentence?