Breakdown of Kun jij de geur van deze bloem beschrijven?
jij
you
de bloem
the flower
deze
this / these
kunnen
can
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
beschrijven
to describe
de geur
the scent / the smell
Questions & Answers about Kun jij de geur van deze bloem beschrijven?
I thought we were learning to use waarvan for "of which". Why do we use van deze bloem instead of waarvan here?
Waarvan is used to introduce a relative clause that links back to a noun you just mentioned (for example, "De bloem waarvan ik houd" - The flower of which I love / whose scent I love). In this sentence, there is no relative clause linking two ideas together. We are just asking a direct question about "the scent of this flower", so we simply use the preposition van (of).
Could I say deze bloems geur to mean "this flower's scent"?
Technically yes, but it sounds very old-fashioned or poetic. For inanimate objects (things that aren't people or animals, like flowers, cars, or houses), Dutch strongly prefers using van to show possession in everyday speech.
Why is it kun jij and not kunt jij?
When the pronoun jij (or je) comes right after the verb to form a question (which is called inversion), you must drop the -t at the end of the verb. So it is jij kunt for a normal statement, but kun jij? for a question.
Why is the verb beschrijven pushed to the very end of the sentence?
This happens because of the modal verb kunnen (can). When you conjugate a modal verb in the second position of a sentence (here as kun), the main verb (beschrijven) gets pushed to the very end of the clause.
Is beschrijven (to describe) a separable verb? If I used it without a modal verb, would it split?
No, it is inseparable. Verbs that start with prefixes like be-, ge-, ver-, or ont- never split. If you were to say "You describe the scent" without using "can", it would just be: Jij beschrijft de geur.
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