Word
Hij mag dan wel waanzinnig beroemd zijn, maar hij heeft geen vrienden.
Meaning
He may well be insanely famous, but he has no friends.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Hij mag dan wel waanzinnig beroemd zijn, maar hij heeft geen vrienden.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
maar
but
hebben
to have
Questions & Answers about Hij mag dan wel waanzinnig beroemd zijn, maar hij heeft geen vrienden.
Doesn't mogen usually mean that someone is allowed to do something? Why is it used here?
You are right that mogen usually expresses permission. However, in this sentence, it is used for epistemic concession. This means you are acknowledging or conceding a fact (he is famous) before countering it with a contrasting point (he has no friends). In English, we do exactly the same thing by saying someone 'may' or 'might' be famous.
What role do the words dan wel play in the first clause?
The combination dan wel strongly reinforces the concessive meaning. While you could just say Hij mag waanzinnig beroemd zijn, adding dan wel is very common and acts like the English word 'well' in 'he may well be'. It signals to the listener that a contrast, usually starting with maar, is coming up next.
Is waanzinnig always used to mean insanely in a literal, medical sense?
No, just like in English, waanzinnig (literally insane or mad) is heavily used as an intensifier in spoken Dutch. Here it simply means extremely or incredibly. You will often hear phrases like waanzinnig leuk (incredibly fun) or waanzinnig goed (insanely good).
Why is zijn at the very end of the first clause?
This is a quick reminder of standard Dutch verb order. Because mag is the conjugated modal verb in the second position of the main clause, it pushes the infinitive verb zijn to the very end of that specific clause, right before the comma.