Word
Nauwelijks was ik ingestapt, of ik was al duizelig.
Meaning
Scarcely had I got in, when I was already dizzy.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Nauwelijks was ik ingestapt, of ik was al duizelig.
ik
I
zijn
to be
instappen
to board / to get in
al
already
Questions & Answers about Nauwelijks was ik ingestapt, of ik was al duizelig.
Why does the sentence start with was ik instead of ik was?
Because the sentence begins with the restrictive adverb nauwelijks (scarcely/hardly). When you put a negative or restrictive word at the front of a sentence for emphasis, it triggers inversion. The verb (was) must stay in the second position, so the subject (ik) moves right after it.
Does of mean "or" in this sentence?
Not in this context. The combination nauwelijks ..., of ... is a fixed expression that translates to "scarcely/hardly ..., when ...". In Dutch, we use of here to link the two events, similar to how English uses "when" after "scarcely".
Why is the word order in the second half of ik was al duizelig rather than putting the verb at the end?
Even though it translates to "when", the word of functions as a coordinating conjunction here (like en or maar). Coordinating conjunctions do not change the word order, so the second clause follows the standard subject-verb main clause order: ik was.
Why do we use was instead of had for "had I got in"?