Als je te hard traint, raakt de spier overbelast.
If you train too hard, your muscle gets overloaded.
Breakdown of Als je te hard traint, raakt de spier overbelast.
te
too
hard
loud / fast (forceful) / hard (with effort)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
trainen
to train
Questions & Answers about Als je te hard traint, raakt de spier overbelast.
Why do we use raakt here instead of wordt?
Raken is used to express a change of state or entering a specific condition, often an unintentional or negative one. While wordt overbelast means 'is being overloaded' (passive voice, focusing on the action), raakt overbelast focuses on the transition into the state of being overloaded ('gets overloaded').
Why is the word order raakt de spier instead of de spier raakt?
The sentence starts with a subordinate clause (Als je te hard traint). In Dutch, when a sentence starts with anything other than the subject, the main clause must invert its subject and verb. Therefore, the main verb raakt comes immediately after the comma, followed by the subject de spier.
The English translation says 'your muscle', but the Dutch says de spier (the muscle). Why isn't a possessive pronoun used?
In Dutch, it is very common to use a definite article (de or het) instead of a possessive pronoun like jouw when referring to body parts, as long as the context makes it completely clear whose body part is being discussed.
Why doesn't the past participle overbelast have a ge- prefix?