Breakdown of Ik stel een vraag over het bewijs.
de vraag
the question
het bewijs
the evidence
stellen
to pose (a question)
Questions & Answers about Ik stel een vraag over het bewijs.
Why do we use stel here instead of a form of vragen (to ask)?
In Dutch, you don't "ask" a question (een vraag vragen sounds repetitive and unnatural to Dutch ears). Instead, the fixed expression is een vraag stellen (literally: to pose or put a question). You use the verb vragen on its own to mean "to ask", but you must always use stellen when combined with the noun vraag.
Does het bewijs mean "proof" or "evidence"?
It means both! Dutch uses het bewijs for mathematical or legal "proof" as well as for general "evidence" in an investigation.
Is there a rule that explains why it is het bewijs instead of de bewijs?
Bewijs is a neuter noun, so it takes het. While you often just have to memorize these, there is a helpful pattern here: many Dutch nouns that start with the unstressed prefixes be-, ge-, ver-, and ont- are het-words.
We are learning about indirect questions. How would the word order change if I said "He asks why I am asking a question about the evidence"?
In an indirect question starting with a question word like waarom (why), the verb moves to the end. So, the main clause Ik stel een vraag... becomes the indirect clause ...waarom ik een vraag over het bewijs stel. The verb stel is pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
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