Word
Ze huilde van blijdschap toen ze de brief las.
Meaning
She cried of joy when she read the letter.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ze huilde van blijdschap toen ze de brief las.
lezen
to read
de brief
the letter
huilen
to cry
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
Questions & Answers about Ze huilde van blijdschap toen ze de brief las.
Where does the d in blijdschap come from if the adjective is just blij?
The suffix -schap turns the adjective blij (glad/happy) into the abstract noun blijdschap (joy). The d is a historical leftover from an older spelling of the adjective (blijde or blijd). When attaching -schap to create states or collectives, you will occasionally see these older forms preserved, so it is best to just memorize the spelling of blijdschap.
Why use van here? Could I say huilde uit blijdschap?
For physical, involuntary reactions caused by a strong emotion, Dutch strongly prefers the preposition van. So you get huilen van blijdschap (crying from joy), rillen van de kou (shivering from cold), or beven van angst (shaking from fear). You use uit more for deliberate actions motivated by something, like uit liefde (out of love).
Is it possible to use wanneer instead of toen for "when" in this sentence?
No, toen is mandatory here. Because this describes a single, specific event in the past (she read the letter once), Dutch strictly requires toen. You only use wanneer in the past tense if you mean "whenever" (a repeated action, e.g., whenever she read his letters, she would cry).