Breakdown of Nadat hij de deur sluit, voelt hij of hij zijn sleutelbos bij zich heeft.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
zijn
his
bij
at / near / by
de deur
the door
sluiten
to close
zich
oneself
of
if / whether
nadat
after
voelen
to feel (something) / to seem/feel (a certain way)
de sleutelbos
the bunch of keys
Questions & Answers about Nadat hij de deur sluit, voelt hij of hij zijn sleutelbos bij zich heeft.
Why do we use bij zich here instead of bij hem for 'with him'?
When a preposition of place like bij refers back to the subject of the same clause (hij), Dutch uses the reflexive pronoun zich. If you used bij hem, it would mean he has the keys with a different male person. The phrase iets bij zich hebben is also the standard fixed way to say you are carrying something on your person.
Why is the word of used here for 'if' rather than als?
You use of when 'if' means 'whether'—usually introducing an embedded yes/no question. He is checking whether he has the keys or not. You only use als for conditional statements, meaning 'in the event that' (like 'if it rains').
Why is the word order voelt hij instead of hij voelt?
The sentence starts with the subordinate clause Nadat hij de deur sluit. In Dutch, this entire clause takes up the first position in the main sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position (the V2 rule), the verb voelt must come immediately after the comma, pushing its subject hij into the third position.
Since closing the door happens before checking his pockets, could I use the perfect tense after nadat?
Yes, and strictly speaking, it is more traditional in written grammar to write Nadat hij de deur heeft gesloten. However, using the simple present tense (sluit) in both clauses is very common and completely accepted in everyday Dutch when the chronological sequence is already obvious.
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