Word
De gemeente wil enerzijds de stad uitbreiden, maar anderzijds de natuur beschermen.
Meaning
The municipality wants to expand the city on the one hand, but protect nature on the other hand.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De gemeente wil enerzijds de stad uitbreiden, maar anderzijds de natuur beschermen.
maar
but
de stad
the city
willen
to want
beschermen
to protect
Questions & Answers about De gemeente wil enerzijds de stad uitbreiden, maar anderzijds de natuur beschermen.
Do you have to use maar before anderzijds?
Not necessarily, but it is very common. The pair enerzijds ... anderzijds means "on the one hand ... on the other hand". Adding maar (but) or en (and) before anderzijds makes the transition flow more naturally, just like we often say "but on the other hand" in English.
Why doesn't anderzijds cause subject-verb inversion here?
It actually would, but the subject and verb are left out! The full second clause would be "...maar anderzijds wil de gemeente de natuur beschermen." Because de gemeente wil is already stated in the first half, it is dropped to avoid repetition, leaving anderzijds directly next to the object.
Why are uitbreiden and beschermen at the very end of their respective phrases?
They are both infinitives depending on the modal verb wil (wants). In Dutch, infinitives get pushed to the end of the clause. Since this sentence coordinates two separate actions linked to wil, both action verbs go to the end of their own halves of the sentence.
Is uitbreiden a separable verb?
Yes, it is a separable verb (uit + breiden). However, because it is used here in its full infinitive form alongside the modal verb wil, it stays written together as a single word rather than splitting.