Questions & Answers about Wie leidt het project?
How would I answer this question using the "Het was... die..." cleft structure from this lesson?
If you wanted to say "It was Jan who led the project," you would say: Het was Jan die het project leidde. You use die because it refers to a person, and the verb shifts to the past tense (leidde) to match the "Het was" (It was) structure.
Why is the verb spelled leidt here instead of lijdt?
In Dutch, leiden (with a short ei) means "to lead," whereas lijden (with a long ij) means "to suffer." They are pronounced exactly the same, but for a project, you definitely want the "lead" spelling!
If I suspect multiple people are leading the project, do I still use the singular leidt?
Yes! When wie (who) is the subject of a question, it grammatically counts as a third-person singular subject. So it is always wie leidt, never wie leiden, exactly like how in English we say "who leads" even if we expect a plural answer.
Is project pronounced the same way as it is in English?
The spelling is identical, but the pronunciation is different. In Dutch, the stress is on the second syllable (pro-JECT), the "o" is short, and the "j" sounds like an English "y" (so it sounds like "pro-YECT").
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