Word
Dat zijn de bomen waar hij gisteren snel tussendoor fietste.
Meaning
Those are the trees between which he cycled quickly yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Dat zijn de bomen waar hij gisteren snel tussendoor fietste.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
snel
fast
fietsen
to cycle
Questions & Answers about Dat zijn de bomen waar hij gisteren snel tussendoor fietste.
Where does the word tussendoor come from in this sentence?
It comes from the circumposition (a two-part preposition) tussen ... door, which means "through the middle of" or "in between". When you combine it with waar to say "between which" regarding an object, the two preposition parts merge into the single word tussendoor.
Why are waar and tussendoor separated by hij gisteren snel?
When you use a pronominal adverb with waar to start a relative clause, waar acts as the connecting relative pronoun and must go at the very beginning. The preposition part (tussendoor) is typically pushed towards the end of the clause, right before the final verb (fietste). It is completely standard in Dutch to place the subject (hij) and adverbs (gisteren snel) in the space between them.
Why does the sentence start with the singular Dat when referring to the plural de bomen?
When you introduce or identify a specific noun (like saying "Those are the trees" or "These are my friends"), Dutch uses the singular neutral pronouns Dit or Dat as a generic pointer, even if the noun is plural. The verb agrees with the plural noun that follows, which is why we say Dat zijn (literally: "That are") rather than "Die zijn".
Could I literally translate "between which" and say tussen welke or tussen die?