Breakdown of Enerzijds groeit de stedelijke bevolking, anderzijds ontbreekt de ruimte.
groeien
to grow
de ruimte
room
ontbreken
to be missing
de bevolking
the population
enerzijds
on the one hand
anderzijds
on the other hand (often paired with enerzijds)
stedelijk
urban
Questions & Answers about Enerzijds groeit de stedelijke bevolking, anderzijds ontbreekt de ruimte.
Why are groeit and ontbreekt placed right after enerzijds and anderzijds?
Both enerzijds and anderzijds act as adverbs at the beginning of their respective clauses. In Dutch, starting a main clause with anything other than the subject triggers inversion, meaning the verb must come second and the subject third. Because of this rule, we get enerzijds groeit de stedelijke bevolking instead of enerzijds de stedelijke bevolking groeit.
How does the word stedelijke relate to the Dutch word for city?
Stedelijke is the adjective form of stad (city). The vowel change from a short 'a' to a long 'e' (which you also see in the plural form steden) is a historical remnant. The suffix -elijk turns it into an adjective meaning 'urban', and the final -e is added because it modifies the noun bevolking.
The translation says 'space is lacking', but doesn't ontbreken usually mean 'to be missing'?
Yes, ontbreken means to be missing, lacking, or absent. In English, you might say 'there is a lack of space' or 'we lack space' using a noun or a transitive verb, but Dutch treats the missing thing itself as the subject of the sentence. So de ruimte ontbreekt literally translates to 'the space is missing'.
Why does the Dutch sentence say de ruimte (the space) when the English translation just says 'space'?
In Dutch, abstract concepts and general mass nouns often take a definite article (de or het) where English omits it entirely. Here, de ruimte refers to physical space in a general, broad sense, which sounds much more natural in Dutch with the article included.
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