Word
De politie waarschuwt de tegen het huidige beleid demonstrerende studenten.
Meaning
The police are warning the students protesting against the current policy.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De politie waarschuwt de tegen het huidige beleid demonstrerende studenten.
de student
the student
tegen
against / to (speaking to)
waarschuwen
to warn
de politie
the police
Questions & Answers about De politie waarschuwt de tegen het huidige beleid demonstrerende studenten.
Why is tegen het huidige beleid demonstrerende placed entirely before studenten?
This is the extended attributive participial phrase, often called the "accordion" structure. In Dutch, you can take a whole phrase describing a noun and squeeze it between the article (de) and the noun itself (studenten). The verbal part of the phrase, acting as a describing adjective (demonstrerende), must be placed right before the noun.
Is this "accordion" word order used in everyday spoken Dutch?
Usually not. This structure is quite dense and is mostly found in formal written Dutch, like news reports or official documents. In everyday speech, a Dutch person would almost always use a relative clause instead: De politie waarschuwt de studenten die tegen het huidige beleid demonstreren.
Why does the present participle demonstrerend get an -e added to it here?
Because it is acting exactly like an adjective modifying the noun studenten. Since studenten is plural, and the whole phrase is preceded by the definite article de, standard adjective spelling rules apply. Therefore, we add an -e to make it demonstrerende.
Why does huidig become huidige before beleid, given that beleid is a het-word?