Breakdown of Dat is de roddel over de vrouw van wie de echtgenoot chirurg is.
zijn
to be
de vrouw
the woman
wie
who
dat
that (het-words)
over
about
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
de roddel
the gossip
de echtgenoot
the husband/the spouse
de chirurg
the surgeon
Questions & Answers about Dat is de roddel over de vrouw van wie de echtgenoot chirurg is.
Why do we use van wie for "whose" here?
In Dutch, to say "whose" when referring to a person (like de vrouw), we use van wie (literally "of whom"). This is the standard way to create a possessive relative clause for people.
Why does it say van wie de echtgenoot instead of just van wie echtgenoot?
This is a major difference from English! In English, "whose" replaces the article (we say "whose husband", not "whose the husband"). In Dutch, van wie does not replace the article. You must keep the de or het belonging to the possessed noun. Because it's de echtgenoot, we say van wie de echtgenoot.
Why is there no Dutch word for "a" before chirurg?
When stating someone's profession, nationality, or religion, Dutch typically drops the indefinite article (een). While English says "is a surgeon", Dutch just says "is surgeon".
Why does the verb is go at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase starting with van wie is a relative clause, which follows subclause word order. In a Dutch subclause, the conjugated verb (is) gets pushed all the way to the end.
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