Breakdown of Als je rondneust in deze winkel, vind je vast wat snuisterijen.
in
in
vinden
to find
de winkel
the shop
deze
this / these
Questions & Answers about Als je rondneust in deze winkel, vind je vast wat snuisterijen.
Doesn't wat normally mean "what" or "a little bit"? How is it used with a plural noun like snuisterijen?
While wat is the question word "what" and also means "a little bit" with uncountable nouns (like wat water), it is very commonly used as an indefinite determiner before plural countable nouns. In this context, wat snuisterijen means "some trinkets" or "a few trinkets". It's a casual, everyday alternative to enkele or een paar.
Since als triggers subordinate word order, shouldn't the verb go at the very end (...in deze winkel rondneust)?
Technically, yes, verbs in subordinate clauses get pushed to the end. However, Dutch allows prepositional phrases (like in deze winkel) to be placed after the final verb. This is highly common in spoken and written Dutch to prevent the sentence from feeling too front-heavy before the verb arrives.
What is the literal translation of the verb rondneuzen?
It literally translates to "nosing around" (rond + neuzen). While it can mean "to snoop" in some contexts, in a shop setting it simply means "to browse" casually. Because it is a separable verb, it would split in a standard main clause (e.g., ik neus rond), but it stays mostly together here because the als clause pushes the verb toward the end.
Doesn't vast usually mean "fixed" or "stuck"? How does it fit into this sentence?