Word
Zij had wat pijn, maar de reactie blijkt ook niet ernstig.
Meaning
She had some pain, but the reaction also turns out not to be serious.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Zij had wat pijn, maar de reactie blijkt ook niet ernstig.
zij
she
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
niet
not
maar
but
Questions & Answers about Zij had wat pijn, maar de reactie blijkt ook niet ernstig.
Why is ook niet placed right before ernstig?
In this sentence, ook niet (also not / not either) specifically modifies the adjective ernstig (serious). In the Dutch middle field, focus adverbs like ook and the negation word niet generally sit immediately before the adjective or prepositional phrase they describe.
The English translation splits up "also" and "not". Do ook and niet always have to stay together in Dutch?
Yes, in sentences like this they function as a fixed unit. While English often splits them up around the verb (also turns out not to be), Dutch pairs them together as ook niet to mean "also not" or "not either". Because the pair describes the adjective ernstig, the whole unit stays right in front of it.
Why doesn't the word order invert after maar?
maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction, just like en (and) or of (or). These words glue two main clauses together without affecting the word order at all. That is why the second clause follows the standard Subject + Verb pattern: de reactie + blijkt.
Doesn't wat normally mean "what"? Why is it translated as "some" here?