Breakdown of Iedereen dacht dat hij de overvaller was, maar hij was het helemaal niet.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
maar
but
Questions & Answers about Iedereen dacht dat hij de overvaller was, maar hij was het helemaal niet.
Why is the word het used in the second half of the sentence (maar hij was het helemaal niet)?
In Dutch, you cannot just drop the noun or adjective after a linking verb like you can in English (e.g., simply saying 'he wasn't'). You must use a pronoun to replace the previously mentioned noun phrase, which in this case is de overvaller. The word het acts as this necessary placeholder pronoun.
Since overvaller is a de-word, shouldn't the replacing pronoun be hem or die instead of het?
No, when replacing a predicate (a noun or adjective following a linking verb like zijn), Dutch always uses the neutral pronoun het. It does not matter if the original noun is a de-word, a het-word, or even plural.
Why does the verb was go at the very end of the first clause, but right after the subject in the second clause?
The first clause is a subordinate clause introduced by dat, which forces verbs to the end of that clause (dat hij de overvaller was). The second clause is introduced by maar, which is a coordinating conjunction. Coordinating conjunctions connect main clauses without changing their word order, so the second part uses standard Subject-Verb order (hij was).
What role does helemaal play here? Can I just leave it out?