Breakdown of De stengel waarvan de doorns zacht zijn, is veilig.
zijn
to be
veilig
safe
zacht
soft
waarvan
whose / of which
de stengel
the stem
de doorn
the thorn
Questions & Answers about De stengel waarvan de doorns zacht zijn, is veilig.
Why do we use waarvan here instead of a word like wiens to mean 'whose'?
In Dutch, wiens (whose) is only used for people. For inanimate objects like de stengel (the stem), you must use a pronominal adverb like waarvan, which literally translates to 'of which'.
Why is the verb zijn placed at the very end of the middle section?
The part between the commas (waarvan de doorns zacht zijn) is a relative clause. In Dutch, relative clauses follow subclause word order, which means the conjugated verb gets pushed to the end.
Why does the main verb is come immediately after the comma?
Is it de doorns or de doornen for the plural of 'thorn'?
Both doorns and doornen are correct plural forms for de doorn. You will see both in Dutch, but doorns is slightly more common in modern everyday speech.
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