Breakdown of Beschadigen kun je dit spatbord nauwelijks.
dit
this (neuter)
kunnen
can
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
beschadigen
to damage
nauwelijks
hardly / scarcely
het spatbord
the mudguard
Questions & Answers about Beschadigen kun je dit spatbord nauwelijks.
Why is the infinitive beschadigen at the very beginning of the sentence?
This is an example of fronting for contrastive focus. By putting the infinitive beschadigen (to damage) in the first position, you put a strong emphasis on the action itself. It implies a contrast, such as: 'You might be able to scratch it or bend it, but damage it? You barely can.'
Because beschadigen is fronted, what happens to the word order of the rest of the sentence?
Dutch strictly follows the V2 (verb-second) rule in main clauses, meaning the conjugated verb must be in the second position. Since the infinitive beschadigen takes up position one, the conjugated verb kun must immediately follow it. This forces the subject je to move after the verb, resulting in the inversion kun je.
Could I also move the object to the front, like Beschadigen dit spatbord kun je nauwelijks?
No, that is not grammatically correct. When you front a verb for emphasis, you only move the verb itself to the front. The object (dit spatbord) must stay in its normal place in the middle of the sentence. If you wanted to emphasize the object instead of the action, you would front only the object: Dit spatbord kun je nauwelijks beschadigen.
Can I use bijna niet instead of nauwelijks here?
Yes, absolutely. Nauwelijks means barely or hardly, and it is completely interchangeable with bijna niet (almost not) in this context. Nauwelijks just sounds slightly more formal or emphatic.
Is je referring to a specific person in this sentence?
Not usually. Just like in English, je is often used here as an impersonal pronoun. It means 'you' in a general sense, equivalent to saying 'One can barely damage this mudguard' or 'This mudguard is barely damageable.'
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