Breakdown of Hij beweert dat hij niet bluft, maar ik vermoed van wel.
ik
I
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
maar
but
dat
that (conjunction)
vermoeden
to suspect
beweren
to claim
van wel
so / that it is
bluffen
to bluff
Questions & Answers about Hij beweert dat hij niet bluft, maar ik vermoed van wel.
How exactly does van wel work in this sentence?
It acts as a substitute for an entire affirmative clause. Instead of repeating the whole idea by saying maar ik vermoed dat hij bluft (but I suspect that he is bluffing), we use van wel to stand in for dat hij bluft. You will see this commonly after verbs of thought and communication like vermoeden (to suspect), denken (to think), and zeggen (to say).
Since the first half uses niet bluft, why do we use the positive van wel instead of van niet?
Because the speaker is contradicting the claim. He claims a negative (niet bluft), but the speaker suspects the opposite, which is positive (wel bluft). If the speaker agreed with him and also thought he wasn't bluffing, they would say ik vermoed van niet (I suspect not).
Could I say ik vermoed het wel instead of ik vermoed van wel?
Yes, you can. With many verbs of thinking, het wel and van wel are used almost interchangeably. However, van wel specifically acts as a direct replacement for a dat-clause, making it sound a bit more like a direct response to a previous claim. Both are perfectly natural here.
Why does the second clause use the standard ik vermoed word order rather than inverting the verb and subject after maar?
The word maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction, just like en (and) or want (because). These conjunctions simply link two main clauses together without pushing the verb to the end or causing inversion. Therefore, the second clause starts normally with the subject ik followed by the verb vermoed.
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