Breakdown of Wie het verhaal leest, begrijpt de moraal.
lezen
to read
begrijpen
to understand
wie
who
het verhaal
the story
de moraal
the moral
Questions & Answers about Wie het verhaal leest, begrijpt de moraal.
Why does wie translate to "whoever" here instead of asking a question?
In this sentence, wie is a "free relative pronoun" rather than a question word. When it stands on its own at the start of a statement like this, it means "the person who" or "whoever". You can think of it as a shorter, punchier version of degene die (the one who).
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb begrijpt?
This is the V2 (verb-second) rule at work. The entire first clause (Wie het verhaal leest) acts as the first grammatical block of the main sentence. Because that entire clause sits in position one, the main verb (begrijpt) must immediately follow in position two.
Is wie always treated as singular?
Yes. Even if you expect many people to read the story and understand the moral, the pronoun wie is grammatically singular in Dutch. This is why it takes the third-person singular verbs leest and begrijpt.
Could I use wie dan ook to mean "whoever" here?
You could, but it would change the tone. Wie dan ook stresses that it applies to absolutely anyone at all. In a general statement or a proverb-like sentence like this one, using just wie is the standard phrasing and sounds much more natural.
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