Word
Sinds de oorlog kennen wij de held wiens nageslacht hier woont.
Meaning
Since the war, we know the hero whose descendants live here.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Sinds de oorlog kennen wij de held wiens nageslacht hier woont.
hier
here
wij
we
wonen
to live
kennen
to know
Questions & Answers about Sinds de oorlog kennen wij de held wiens nageslacht hier woont.
Why is wiens used here instead of wier?
wiens is the formal genitive relative pronoun for masculine and neuter antecedents. Since it refers back to de held (a masculine noun), we use wiens. If it referred to a feminine noun like de heldin or a plural noun like de helden, you would use wier.
Why is the verb woont singular when it refers to plural 'descendants'?
The Dutch word nageslacht translates to 'descendants' or 'offspring', but grammatically it is a singular neuter noun (het nageslacht). Because the noun itself is singular in Dutch, it takes the singular verb woont.
Why does the sentence say kennen wij rather than wij kennen?
Starting the sentence with the time phrase Sinds de oorlog triggers inversion in the main clause. The verb kennen must take the second position, so the subject wij is placed immediately after it.
Why does woont appear at the very end of the sentence?
The word wiens introduces a relative clause, which functions just like a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb (in this case, woont) is always pushed to the end.