Breakdown of Wat wij nastreven, is een betekenisvol doel.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
wij
we
het doel
the goal
wat
that / which (relative)
nastreven
to pursue / to strive for
betekenisvol
meaningful
Questions & Answers about Wat wij nastreven, is een betekenisvol doel.
Why does the verb is immediately follow the comma?
The entire first clause, Wat wij nastreven, acts as the subject (position 1) of the main sentence. Because Dutch main clauses follow the V2 rule, the finite verb (is) must take the second position right after that whole subject block.
How does this sentence structure change the emphasis compared to saying Wij streven een betekenisvol doel na?
This is a pseudo-cleft sentence. By packaging the action into a Wat clause at the start, the sentence creates anticipation and places heavy emphasis on the final complement (een betekenisvol doel). It focuses the listener purely on the nature of the goal itself.
Nastreven is a separable verb. Why isn't it separated here?
Because Wat wij nastreven is a subordinate clause, which pushes all verbs to the end. When the verb (streven) and its separable prefix (na) are both sent to the end of the clause, they recombine into a single word. In a standard main clause, they would split (for example: Wij streven een doel na).
Why doesn't the adjective betekenisvol get an -e ending here?
The word doel is a neuter noun (het doel). When a neuter noun is preceded by the indefinite article een, the adjective before it drops the -e ending. If you used the definite article, the -e would return: het betekenisvolle doel.
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