Breakdown of Hoe vaak de snaar ook breekt, zij blijft spelen.
zij
she
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
spelen
to play
vaak
often
hoe
how
blijven
to stay
breken
to break
de snaar
the string
Questions & Answers about Hoe vaak de snaar ook breekt, zij blijft spelen.
How does the "however often" construction work in this sentence?
To say "however [adverb/adjective]" in Dutch, you use a combination of hoe and ook. The word hoe pairs with the adverb vaak at the start of the clause, while ook is placed later on, usually just before the verb at the end. It translates literally as "How often the string also breaks".
Why isn't there word order inversion in the second clause (blijft zij instead of zij blijft)?
This is a rare exception! Normally, starting a sentence with a subordinate clause forces the main clause to invert its subject and verb. However, concessive clauses (clauses expressing "no matter what" or "however") are often treated as loosely connected introductory thoughts. Because of this, the main clause is allowed to keep the standard subject-verb order (zij blijft). Note that inversion (blijft zij) would also be perfectly grammatically correct here.
Why does breekt go at the very end of the first part?
The phrase Hoe vaak de snaar ook breekt functions as a subordinate clause. As a quick refresher: in Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb (here, breekt) is always pushed to the very end of that clause.
Why use blijft spelen for "keeps playing"?
When you want to express that someone "keeps doing" or "continues doing" an action, Dutch uses the verb blijven (to stay/remain) followed directly by the infinitive of the action verb (spelen). English speakers sometimes mistakenly try to use houden (to keep/hold), but that cannot be used for continuous actions in Dutch.
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