Word
Heeft de hond de neiging om te bijten, of is dat aangeboren?
Meaning
Does the dog have the tendency to bite, or is that innate?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Heeft de hond de neiging om te bijten, of is dat aangeboren?
zijn
to be
de hond
the dog
hebben
to have
dat
that (het-words)
Questions & Answers about Heeft de hond de neiging om te bijten, of is dat aangeboren?
Why do we use om te bijten instead of just te bijten after de neiging?
When an infinitive describes or completes a noun—like de neiging (the tendency), de tijd (the time), or de kans (the chance)—Dutch uses the om te + infinitive structure. Think of it as linking the noun to the action it points toward.
Is aangeboren a separable verb here?
No, here it functions purely as an adjective meaning "innate" or "inborn". It combines aan (on/to) and geboren (born). It literally translates to "born with," which perfectly captures a trait present from birth.
How could I add nou eenmaal to this sentence to emphasize that an innate trait is an unavoidable fact?
You would place it in the second clause, right after the subject dat: ...of is dat nou eenmaal aangeboren? (or is that just innate / simply the way it is?). The phrase nou eenmaal expresses that a situation is a fact of life that cannot be changed, which pairs perfectly with the concept of an innate trait.
Why does the second clause use the inverted word order is dat rather than dat is?