Breakdown of De oude fabriek veroorzaakt helaas veel vervuiling.
oud
old
veel
much / many / a lot of
de fabriek
the factory
helaas
unfortunately
veroorzaken
to cause
de vervuiling
the pollution
Questions & Answers about De oude fabriek veroorzaakt helaas veel vervuiling.
Since this lesson is about immers, where would we put it in this sentence to say 'after all, the old factory unfortunately causes a lot of pollution'?
You would place it in the middle field, usually right after the conjugated verb alongside other adverbs. For example: De oude fabriek veroorzaakt immers helaas veel vervuiling. This adds the nuance of 'as we all know' or 'after all' to justify a previous statement with shared knowledge.
Why is it oude and not oud?
Because fabriek is a de-word (de fabriek). When an adjective comes before a noun with de or het in front of it, it almost always gets an -e at the end. Only het-words with an indefinite article (een) or no article drop the -e.
How does the word vervuiling (pollution) relate to the word for dirty (vuil)?
The prefix ver- is often used in Dutch to show a transition or a process of change. So vuil means dirty, vervuilen means to make dirty or to pollute, and adding the suffix -ing turns the verb into the noun vervuiling.
Why does helaas sit in the middle of the sentence instead of at the beginning?
In Dutch main clauses, the conjugated verb (veroorzaakt) must stay in the second position. Adverbs like helaas (unfortunately) are usually placed in the middle field just after the verb. If you started the sentence with Helaas, the subject and verb would have to swap places to keep the verb second: Helaas veroorzaakt de oude fabriek veel vervuiling.
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