Breakdown of Men dacht dat de handlanger gewelddadig was, en hij was het ook.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
en
and
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
het
it
denken
to think
dat
that (conjunction)
men
one / people (general)
de handlanger
the accomplice
gewelddadig
violent
Questions & Answers about Men dacht dat de handlanger gewelddadig was, en hij was het ook.
Why is the word het in the second half of the sentence when the English translation just says "he was too"?
This is the focus of the current lesson! In Dutch, you cannot leave the verb zijn (to be) hanging without a complement in this kind of structure. The pronoun het acts as a resumptive pronoun, pointing back to the previously mentioned adjective gewelddadig (violent). Literally, the Dutch phrasing means "and he was it too."
Could I leave out het and just say en hij was ook like in English?
No, that would sound grammatically incomplete to a Dutch speaker. While English allows you to drop the adjective and end on the verb "to be" (as in "he was"), Dutch strictly requires het to fill in the blank left by the missing adjective or noun phrase.
Why is the first was placed at the very end of its clause (gewelddadig was), but the second was comes right after the subject (hij was)?
This is a great refresher on Dutch word order. The first part is a subordinate clause introduced by dat (that), which pushes the verb to the end of the clause. The second part, starting with the coordinating conjunction en (and), is a completely new main clause, so the verb was takes the standard second position right after the subject hij.
What exactly is the word men, and why does it take a singular verb (dacht) if it translates to the plural "people"?
Men is a formal, generic subject pronoun similar to "one" in English (as in "one thought that..."). Because it is a singular pronoun, it always takes a singular verb. While it translates most naturally to "people" or "they" in conversational English, you must treat it as grammatically singular in Dutch.
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