Breakdown of Wij zijn veel water aan het verspillen.
zijn
to be
wij
we
veel
much / many / a lot of
het water
the water
Questions & Answers about Wij zijn veel water aan het verspillen.
Why is veel water placed between zijn and aan het verspillen?
In Dutch, the continuous construction uses the conjugated verb zijn + aan het + infinitive. The conjugated verb (zijn) takes the second position in the sentence, but the rest of the verbal group (aan het verspillen) is pushed to the very end. The direct object (veel water) must sit in the middle field between them.
Could I just say Wij verspillen veel water? What is the difference?
Why do we use veel here instead of vele?
Water is an uncountable noun. With uncountable nouns, you always use the uninflected form veel (meaning 'much' or 'a lot of'). The form vele is used with plural, countable nouns to mean 'many' (for example, vele mensen).
This lesson is about immers. If I wanted to add it to say 'We are wasting a lot of water, after all', where would it go?