Breakdown of Wat een giftige kikker is dat!
zijn
to be
dat
that (het-words)
wat een
what a
giftig
poisonous
de kikker
the frog
Questions & Answers about Wat een giftige kikker is dat!
Why do we use wat een here instead of just wat?
We use wat een because kikker (frog) is a singular, countable noun. If we were exclaiming about multiple frogs or an uncountable noun like water, we would just use wat without the een.
Why is the adjective giftige spelled with an -e at the end even though it follows een?
An adjective after een only drops the -e ending if it describes a het word. Because kikker is a de word (de kikker), the adjective keeps the -e ending.
Why is the verb is placed before dat?
This sentence follows standard Dutch V2 (verb-second) word order. The entire exclamatory phrase Wat een giftige kikker counts as the first block of information. The verb is takes the second position, pushing the subject dat to the end.
Since kikker is a de word, shouldn't it be is die instead of is dat?
In an exclamatory sentence like this, dat functions as an independent demonstrative pronoun meaning 'that' or 'that thing'. When pointing out something in a general way like this, we use dat regardless of the noun's gender.
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