Breakdown of Hij morst vaak tijdens het diner, vandaar dat hij liever alleen eet.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
eten
to eat
vaak
often
liever
rather (prefer)
Questions & Answers about Hij morst vaak tijdens het diner, vandaar dat hij liever alleen eet.
Why is the verb eet at the very end of the second clause?
The phrase vandaar dat ("which is why" or "that is why") acts as a subordinating conjunction because of the word dat. Any clause introduced by dat is a subordinate clause, which means the conjugated verb (eet) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence.
If I wanted to express the same idea using daarom (therefore), how would the word order change?
While vandaar dat introduces a subordinate clause (verb at the end), daarom acts as an adverb starting a new main clause. This triggers inversion (putting the verb before the subject), so the sentence would become: ...daarom eet hij liever alleen.
Why doesn't the Dutch sentence use a specific verb for "prefers"?
While Dutch does have formal verbs for preferring, everyday Dutch simply uses the adverb liever (rather) combined with the main action verb. So hij eet liever literally means "he eats rather," which is the most natural way to say "he prefers to eat."
What is the infinitive of morst, and is it a regular verb?