Breakdown of Wat dit genre betreft, is deze documentaire erg onvoorspelbaar.
zijn
to be
erg
very / really
deze
this / these
dit
this (neuter)
betreffen
to concern / to regard
wat
that / which (relative)
onvoorspelbaar
unpredictable
het genre
the genre
de documentaire
the documentary
Questions & Answers about Wat dit genre betreft, is deze documentaire erg onvoorspelbaar.
Why does the verb is come before the subject deze documentaire?
The entire phrase Wat dit genre betreft acts as the first building block (the first position) of the sentence. Because Dutch follows a strict Verb-Second (V2) rule in main clauses, the main verb is must take the second position. This forces the subject deze documentaire to move after the verb, causing an inversion.
Could I keep the phrase together and say wat betreft dit genre instead?
Yes, you will often hear Dutch speakers keep it together as a preposition (wat betreft dit genre) in everyday speech. However, wrapping the topic in the bipartite phrase (wat [topic] betreft) is considered better style and is the standard format you should use, especially in writing.
Why are we using both dit and deze to mean "this" in the same sentence?
This is a quick reminder of noun genders. The word genre is a neuter noun (a het-word), so it requires dit. The word documentaire is a common noun (a de-word), so it requires deze.
How do the parts of the word onvoorspelbaar break down?
It translates perfectly to its English equivalent piece by piece: on- means "un-", voorspel comes from the verb voorspellen (to predict, literally "fore-spell"), and -baar means "-able". Together, they form "unpredictable".
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