Breakdown of We geven de baby de speen, nu ze moe is.
zijn
to be
moe
tired
geven
to give
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
de baby
the baby
nu
now that
de speen
the pacifier
Questions & Answers about We geven de baby de speen, nu ze moe is.
Why does nu mean "now that" here instead of just "now"?
In Dutch, nu can be used as a subordinating conjunction, which links a main clause to a dependent clause. When used this way, it translates to "now that" or "since". You can tell it is acting as a conjunction here because it introduces a new clause with the verb pushed to the end (nu ze moe is).
Why is the verb is at the very end of the sentence?
Because nu (now that) acts as a subordinating conjunction here, it forces the clause it introduces into a "verb-final" word order. So instead of the standard Subject-Verb order (ze is moe), the verb gets pushed to the end: nu ze moe is.
Why isn't there a word for "to" before de baby, like aan de baby?
Just like in English ("We give the baby the pacifier"), Dutch lets you drop the preposition aan (to) if you put the recipient (the indirect object, de baby) right before the thing being given (the direct object, de speen). If you wanted to use aan, it would go after the direct object: We geven de speen aan de baby.
Could I use zij instead of ze in this sentence?
Yes, you could use the stressed pronoun zij if you wanted to put strong emphasis on "she" (for example, if she is tired, but the other child is not). However, since her being tired is just a factual explanation here without any special contrast, the unstressed pronoun ze is much more natural.
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