Breakdown of Hoewel de verdachte gewelddadig leek, was hij het niet.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
het
it
Questions & Answers about Hoewel de verdachte gewelddadig leek, was hij het niet.
Why is the word het used in the second half of the sentence?
It acts as a resumptive pronoun. It refers back to the adjective gewelddadig (violent) mentioned in the first clause. While in English you can just leave the adjective out and say "he was not," Dutch requires het as a placeholder to complete the thought (literally: "he was it not").
Why is the word order was hij instead of hij was?
This happens because of the verb-second (V2) rule. The entire first clause (Hoewel de verdachte gewelddadig leek) counts as the first block of information in the sentence. The conjugated verb of the main clause (was) must take the second position, so it immediately follows the comma, coming right before the subject (hij).
Why does leek come at the very end of the first clause?
The word hoewel (although) is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a dependent clause, which in Dutch means the conjugated verb (leek) gets pushed all the way to the end of that specific clause.
What verb does leek come from?
Leek is the simple past tense of the strong (irregular) verb lijken (to seem or to appear). If this sentence were in the present tense, it would use lijkt.