Breakdown of Zij verkoopt wat snuisterijen die nogal eigenaardig zijn.
zijn
to be
zij
she
verkopen
to sell
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
wat
something / some (a little)
nogal
quite / rather (considerably, more than average)
de snuisterij
the trinket
eigenaardig
peculiar
Questions & Answers about Zij verkoopt wat snuisterijen die nogal eigenaardig zijn.
Isn't wat normally used for uncountable nouns? Can we use it with a plural countable noun like snuisterijen?
Yes! While you first learned wat meaning "some" for uncountables (like wat water), native speakers frequently use it with plural countable nouns to mean "a few" or "some." Here, wat snuisterijen simply means "some trinkets." This is very common in everyday Dutch.
Why do we use die here instead of dat to say "that are quite peculiar"?
The relative pronoun die points back to the noun before it, which is snuisterijen. Because snuisterijen is plural, you must use die. You would only use dat to mean "that" or "which" if it referred back to a singular het-word.
I see snuisterijen ends in -ijen. How does that plural ending work?
The singular form of this word is snuisterij (a trinket or knick-knack). In Dutch, nouns ending in the suffix -ij form their plural by simply adding -en, which creates the rather distinct-looking -ijen ending you see here.
I recognize the word eigen (own) inside eigenaardig. Does that relate to its meaning of "peculiar"?
It does indeed! The adjective eigenaardig is made up of eigen (own) and aard (nature or character), plus the adjective ending -ig. If a trinket is eigenaardig, it literally has its very "own nature," making it peculiar, quirky, or strange.
Why is the verb zijn placed at the very end of the sentence?
The part of the sentence starting with die is a relative clause, which provides more information about the trinkets. A relative clause follows the exact same word order rules as a subordinate clause, meaning the conjugated verb zijn gets pushed all the way to the end.
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