Breakdown of Omdat het hele deeg nog niet plakkerig is, voeg ik water toe.
ik
I
zijn
to be
niet
not
het water
the water
het
it
nog
still, yet / more, another (with a quantity)
omdat
because (subordinating)
toevoegen
to add
heel
whole
het deeg
the dough
plakkerig
sticky
Questions & Answers about Omdat het hele deeg nog niet plakkerig is, voeg ik water toe.
Why do we use het hele deeg (the whole dough) instead of al het deeg (all the dough) here?
Both make sense, but they have a slightly different focus. Het hele deeg focuses on the dough as a single, continuous entity (the entire batch in front of you). Al het deeg focuses more on the total quantity or amount. When talking about the physical state of a singular mass or object, het hele is usually the more natural choice for expressing "the whole of it."
Deeg is an het word. Why does the adjective heel get an -e ending to become hele?
Adjectives in front of het words only drop the -e ending when they are indefinite—meaning they follow een, geen, zo'n, or no article at all. Because we are using the definite article het here, the adjective follows the standard rule and takes the -e ending: het hele deeg.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb voeg instead of ik voeg?
This is due to the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire first clause (Omdat het hele deeg nog niet plakkerig is) acts as the first position of the main sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, voeg must come immediately after the comma, which inverts the subject and verb, pushing ik to the third position.
What is toe doing at the very end of the sentence?
It is the prefix of the separable verb toevoegen (to add). In a main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (voeg) takes the second position, while the separable prefix (toe) gets kicked to the very end of the clause.
Learn Omdat het hele deeg nog niet plakkerig is, voeg ik water toe and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free