Word
De dief in de cel was agressief, en de handlanger was het ook.
Meaning
The thief in the cell was aggressive, and the accomplice was too.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De dief in de cel was agressief, en de handlanger was het ook.
zijn
to be
en
and
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
in
in
Questions & Answers about De dief in de cel was agressief, en de handlanger was het ook.
Why do we need the word het in the second half of the sentence?
In English, you can end a sentence with a hanging verb like 'was too', but Dutch requires you to fill that gap. The word het acts as a placeholder pronoun that points back to the adjective agressief. You are literally saying 'the accomplice was it too'.
Can I just leave out het and say en de handlanger was ook?
No, that is a direct translation from English that sounds very unnatural in Dutch. You must use the resumptive pronoun het to replace the missing adjective so the verb was has a complement.
Does the word handlanger always imply something criminal?
Yes, a handlanger translates to an accomplice or henchman and carries a strongly negative or criminal connotation. If you want to refer to a partner in a positive or neutral setting, you would use a word like partner, medewerker, or collega.
Could I change the word order to was ook het?
No, in Dutch, specific unstressed pronouns like het usually stick directly to the finite verb. Because of this rule, the adverb ook must come after het, making was het ook the only correct order here.