Breakdown of Dit voedingsschema werkt beter, naargelang je het langer volhoudt.
jij
you
werken
to work
dit
this (neuter)
het
it
lang
long
beter
better
volhouden
to persevere
naargelang
depending on whether / as (in proportion to)
het voedingsschema
the meal plan
Questions & Answers about Dit voedingsschema werkt beter, naargelang je het langer volhoudt.
How does naargelang affect the word order in the second half of the sentence?
Naargelang is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause. In Dutch, dependent clauses use verb-final word order, so the conjugated verb volhoudt is pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why is volhoudt written as a single word at the end? Isn't volhouden a separable verb?
Yes, volhouden (to keep up / to persevere) is a separable verb. In a normal main clause, the prefix separates and goes to the end (for example, je houdt het lang vol). But because naargelang forces all verbs to the end of the clause, the prefix vol- and the verb houdt meet at the end and are written back together as one word.
Could I use the hoe... hoe... (the more... the more...) structure instead of naargelang here?
Absolutely! You could rephrase this as Hoe langer je het volhoudt, hoe beter dit voedingsschema werkt (The longer you keep it up, the better this meal plan works). Using naargelang with a comparative adjective like langer is just a slightly more formal but very common way to express that two things change in proportion to each other.
What does the pronoun het refer to, and why is it used instead of hem?
Het refers back to dit voedingsschema (this meal plan). Because schema is a neuter noun (a het-word), you must use the neuter pronoun het to say 'keep it up'.
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