Breakdown of De imker kweekt al een jaar bijen.
een
a/an
het jaar
the year
al
already
de imker
the beekeeper
de bij
the bee
kweken
to breed / to cultivate
Questions & Answers about De imker kweekt al een jaar bijen.
Why does the Dutch sentence use the present tense (kweekt) when the English translation says "has been breeding"?
In Dutch, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. English uses the present perfect continuous ("has been doing"). To show that it has been going on for a certain time, Dutch adds al (already). So, kweekt al een jaar means "has been breeding for a year".
The English translation says "for a year", but there is no word for "for" in the Dutch sentence. How is that expressed?
Dutch doesn't use a preposition like "voor" for this grammar structure. When expressing how long an ongoing action has been happening, you simply use al followed directly by the time period (een jaar). Translating "for" literally would sound unnatural here.
Why is bijen (bees) at the very end of the sentence instead of right after kweekt?
This follows the general Dutch word order rule of "Time before Object". The time phrase al een jaar must come before the direct object bijen. In English, we usually put the object first ("breeding bees for a year"), but Dutch places the time phrase earlier in the sentence.
Does the verb kweken only apply to breeding animals?
No, kweken is very versatile! While it means "to breed" when talking about animals or insects like bees, it is also the standard verb for "to grow" or "to cultivate" plants, such as growing vegetables in a garden.
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