Breakdown of Waarom leg je er steeds meer troep?
waarom
why
er
there (in that place)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
meer
more
steeds
again and again, constantly / still (in 'nog steeds')
leggen
to lay / to put down (flat)
de troep
the junk / the mess
Questions & Answers about Waarom leg je er steeds meer troep?
Why is er placed right after je?
In Dutch, the little word er (here meaning 'there') jumps to the very front of the middle part of the sentence. In this question, it must sit immediately after the subject (je) and before the adverbs or quantity phrases like steeds meer.
How exactly does steeds meer work?
Steeds meer is a set phrase meaning 'more and more' or 'increasingly more'. You can put steeds in front of any comparative word to describe an ongoing change, such as steeds beter (better and better) or steeds kouder (colder and colder).
Why do we use leg to say 'put' in this sentence?
Dutch requires you to specify how you place something. You use leggen (to lay) for things that are scattered, flat, or lack a clear upright shape, which perfectly describes scattered junk (troep). If you were placing an upright object like a chair, you would use zetten.
Is troep treated as a plural word here?
No, troep (meaning junk, mess, or rubbish) is an uncountable noun in Dutch, just like 'junk' in English. Because you cannot count it, it never gets a plural ending, even when you have meer (more) of it.
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