Breakdown of Het graan is nat, ondanks het feit dat het in de schuur ligt.
zijn
to be
in
in
het
it
liggen
to lie
dat
that (conjunction)
het feit
the fact
nat
wet
ondanks
despite
de schuur
the barn
het graan
the grain
Questions & Answers about Het graan is nat, ondanks het feit dat het in de schuur ligt.
Why does the verb ligt go at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase ondanks het feit dat ends with dat, which introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb is pushed to the end, which is why we say dat het in de schuur ligt.
Can I just say ondanks dat het in de schuur ligt instead?
In everyday spoken Dutch, yes, people often shorten it to ondanks dat. However, ondanks is a preposition, and strictly speaking, prepositions shouldn't directly attach to a dat-clause. Adding het feit (the fact) acts as a grammatical bridge, making ondanks het feit dat the proper form for written Dutch.
Why use ligt instead of is to say "it is in the barn"?
To describe where things are located, Dutch strongly prefers positional verbs like liggen (to lie), staan (to stand), or zitten (to sit) over zijn (to be). Since grain is a loose mass that rests flat on a surface, we use liggen.
What does the second het in the sentence refer to?
It refers back to het graan (the grain). Because graan is a neuter noun, we must use the pronoun het to say "it". If the noun were a de-word instead, like de maïs (the corn), you would have to use hij to refer back to it.
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