Breakdown of Ik vraag me af waarom de basisschool nogal klein is.
ik
I
zijn
to be
klein
small
waarom
why
zich afvragen
to wonder
nogal
quite / rather (considerably, more than average)
de basisschool
the primary school
Questions & Answers about Ik vraag me af waarom de basisschool nogal klein is.
Why does the sentence use Ik vraag me af instead of just Ik vraag?
It uses the reflexive, separable verb zich afvragen, which means "to wonder". The verb vragen by itself simply means "to ask". Because it is a separable verb used in a main clause here, the verb vraag comes right after the subject, and the prefix af goes at the end of that part of the sentence.
How does nogal work here, and could I use another word like best or vrij?
Nogal means "quite" or "rather", and it softens the adjective klein to show a moderate degree of smallness. You could absolutely replace it with best, vrij, or tamelijk. Nogal is a great choice here to express a fairly neutral or factual "rather", while best might sound just a tiny bit more surprised or conversational.
Why is the verb is at the very end of the sentence?
The word waarom (why) connects the main clause to a subordinate clause (waarom de basisschool nogal klein is). In Dutch, whenever you use a subordinate clause, the conjugated verb (in this case, is) gets pushed all the way to the end of that clause.
Do I need to pronounce both 's' sounds in basisschool?
Even though it is a compound noun built from basis and school and written with a double 's', you don't clearly pronounce two separate 's' sounds. Native speakers blend them together into one continuous 's' sound when speaking at a normal pace.
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