Breakdown of Wat de metaaldetector ook vindt, men stuit altijd op roest.
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
altijd
always
vinden
to find
wat
what
men
one / people (general)
de metaaldetector
the metal detector
stuiten op
to stumble upon
de roest
the rust
Questions & Answers about Wat de metaaldetector ook vindt, men stuit altijd op roest.
How does the wat ... ook structure work in this sentence?
To say "whatever", "whoever", or "wherever", Dutch pairs a question word like wat with the word ook. Instead of staying together, they split up to frame the subject and object of the clause. Here, wat and ook wrap around de metaaldetector to mean "whatever the metal detector...".
Why does vindt go at the very end of the first clause?
The wat ... ook structure creates a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb (in this case, vindt) is always pushed to the very end.
Wait, why isn't it stuit men? Doesn't a starting clause force inversion?
That is a great catch! Normally, a starting subordinate clause takes up the first position and pushes the main clause's verb in front of its subject. However, universal concessive clauses (like those starting with wat ... ook) are an exception. They are treated as standing slightly outside the main sentence, so the main clause just keeps the normal subject-verb order (men stuit).
What kind of verb is stuiten?
In this sentence, it is part of the fixed prepositional verb stuiten op, which means "to stumble upon" or "to encounter". You can use it for physically finding something unexpectedly (like rust), or when running into abstract things, like problems or resistance.
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