Breakdown of Deze bijenkorf is erg zwaar omdat er veel honing in zit.
zijn
to be
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
erg
very / really
deze
this / these
zwaar
heavy / severe (of a punishment) / tough, hard
zitten
to be (located) in
omdat
because (subordinating)
er
it (in 'er ... op/mee', pronominal adverb)
de bijenkorf
the beehive
de honing
the honey
Questions & Answers about Deze bijenkorf is erg zwaar omdat er veel honing in zit.
Why does the sentence use zit (sits) instead of is for 'there is honey in it'?
Why is the verb zit pushed to the very end of the sentence?
The word omdat (because) introduces a subordinate clause. In a Dutch subordinate clause, the conjugated verb is always kicked to the end. That is why zit appears after in, rather than right after the subject like it would in a main clause.
Where does the 'it' in 'in it' come from, since I don't see the word het?
In Dutch, you cannot say 'in het' to mean 'in it' when referring to a thing. Instead, you combine er (there) and in (in) to make erin. In this sentence, erin splits apart to wrap around the subject (veel honing), giving us the structure er veel honing in zit.
I sometimes mix up deze and dit. How do we know to use deze here?
Bijenkorf is a compound word ending in korf (basket). Compound words always take the gender of their final noun. Since it is de korf, the full word is de bijenkorf. For all de-words, 'this' translates to deze, whereas het-words use dit.
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