Breakdown of Behalve dat de Amazone lang is, is deze rivier erg gevaarlijk.
zijn
to be
erg
very / really
deze
this / these
lang
long
gevaarlijk
dangerous
de rivier
the river
dat
that (conjunction)
behalve
except / besides
de Amazone
the Amazon
Questions & Answers about Behalve dat de Amazone lang is, is deze rivier erg gevaarlijk.
Why do we use the article de before Amazone?
In Dutch, the names of rivers, seas, and oceans always take the definite article de. Because it is a river, it is de Amazone, just like de Rijn (the Rhine) or de Noordzee (the North Sea).
Why use behalve dat instead of just behalve?
When behalve is followed directly by a noun, it just means 'except' or 'besides' (like behalve de Amazone). But here, you are connecting two full clauses. To say 'besides the fact that', you must use the conjunction behalve dat, which also pushes the verb to the end of its subclause (lang is).
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb is?
This is the classic Dutch V2 (verb second) rule in action. The entire first subclause (Behalve dat de Amazone lang is) acts as a single block taking up the first position in the main sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, it must come immediately after the comma, causing inversion: is deze rivier instead of deze rivier is.
If I wanted to replace deze rivier with a pronoun, which one would I use?
Because rivier is a de-word, you cannot use het. In everyday spoken Dutch, you would typically use hij (he) or the demonstrative die (that one) to refer back to it. In very formal written Dutch, you might see zij (she) used instead, because rivier is traditionally a feminine word.
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