Breakdown of Buigen zal het frame gelukkig niet snel.
niet
not
snel
fast
het
it
zullen
shall / will
gelukkig
fortunately
buigen
to bow / to bend
het frame
the frame (structural, e.g. bicycle)
Questions & Answers about Buigen zal het frame gelukkig niet snel.
Why is the infinitive buigen at the very beginning of this sentence?
This is an example of fronting an infinitive for contrastive focus. By putting buigen at the start, the speaker heavily emphasizes the action of bending. It implies a contrast, such as: the frame might get scratched or dented, but bend it certainly will not.
Since buigen is at the front, why does the verb zal come before the subject het frame?
Dutch strictly follows the verb-second rule in main clauses. Because the first position is taken by the fronted infinitive buigen, the conjugated verb zal must immediately follow it in the second position. This pushes the subject het frame to the third position, resulting in inversion.
The word snel usually means fast or quick, so why does the English translation say the frame will not bend easily?
In Dutch, the phrase niet snel is frequently used idiomatically to mean not easily, not readily, or not anytime soon. Saying that a material will not bend snel is the most natural way to express that it requires a lot of force to bend, rather than referring to the literal speed of the bending motion.
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