Breakdown of Zij is zo dolblij en opgelucht dat ze zingt.
zijn
to be
zij
she
en
and
zingen
to sing
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
zo
so (to such a degree)
dat
that (conjunction)
dolblij
overjoyed
opgelucht
relieved
Questions & Answers about Zij is zo dolblij en opgelucht dat ze zingt.
How does the zo ... dat structure work in this sentence?
This is a result clause. The word zo meaning so intensifies the adjectives dolblij and opgelucht, and dat meaning that introduces the result of those feelings. Because they are connected by en, the zo applies to both: she is so overjoyed and so relieved.
The lesson says dat pushes the verb to the end of the clause, but ze zingt looks like normal word order. What happened?
The verb zingt actually is at the end of the clause! Because the subordinate clause only contains a subject (ze) and a verb (zingt), the verb-final rule looks exactly like normal Subject-Verb word order. If you added an object, like a song (een liedje), the verb-final rule would be obvious: ... dat ze een liedje zingt.
What does the dol- part of dolblij mean?
The word dol on its own means crazy or mad. In Dutch, it is often glued to the front of adjectives as an intensifier meaning extremely. So, dolblij literally translates to crazy happy, which we would call overjoyed.
Is opgelucht a verb or an adjective here?
It functions as an adjective here, but it comes from a verb. It is the past participle of the separable verb opluchten meaning to relieve. Notice how the past participle prefix -ge- sits right between the separable part op- and the root lucht.
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