Word
De klasgenoot van wie de verhalen saai zijn, is te moe om te praten.
Meaning
The classmate whose stories are boring, is too tired to talk.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De klasgenoot van wie de verhalen saai zijn, is te moe om te praten.
zijn
to be
moe
tired
praten
to talk
wie
who
Questions & Answers about De klasgenoot van wie de verhalen saai zijn, is te moe om te praten.
Why do we use van wie for "whose" here?
In modern Dutch, van wie (literally "of whom") is the standard way to say "whose" when talking about a person. You might sometimes see the older word wiens in very formal writing, but van wie is much more common and natural for everyday use.
Why is there a de before verhalen in the phrase van wie de verhalen?
While English says "whose stories", the Dutch structure literally means "of whom the stories". After van wie, you must always include a definite article (de or het) before the noun that belongs to the person.
Why are the verbs zijn and is right next to each other, separated only by a comma?
The main sentence is De klasgenoot is te moe om te praten. The relative clause (van wie de verhalen saai zijn) interrupts it to add extra information. Because relative clauses push their verbs to the end (zijn), it bumps right up against the verb of the main sentence (is) when the main sentence resumes.
Can you remind me why we use om te praten instead of just te praten?
When you describe someone as "too [adjective]" to do something (in this case, te moe or "too tired"), Dutch uses the om te + infinitive structure to attach the action verb.