Breakdown of Shampoo gebruikt hij niet veel.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
niet
not
veel
much / many / a lot of
gebruiken
to use
de shampoo
the shampoo
Questions & Answers about Shampoo gebruikt hij niet veel.
Why is shampoo separated from veel instead of saying niet veel shampoo together?
This is split topicalization, the focus of this lesson. By moving just the bare noun (shampoo) to the front of the sentence, you make it the topic ('As for shampoo...'). The quantifier (veel) is left behind later in the sentence.
Why does the verb gebruikt come before the subject hij?
Because Dutch is a verb-second (V2) language. Whenever you put a word other than the subject in the first position (here, the object shampoo), the finite verb must stay in the second position. This forces the subject (hij) to invert and move directly after the verb.
The lesson uses er when splitting noun phrases, like Boeken heb ik er drie. Why is there no er in this sentence?
We only use the quantitative er (meaning 'of them') when dealing with countable nouns. Because shampoo is an uncountable mass noun here, and veel is a broad amount rather than a specific count, er is not used.
If he doesn't use any shampoo at all, how would this split sentence change?
Normally, you would say Hij gebruikt geen shampoo. If you want to use split topicalization to emphasize the shampoo, the word geen effectively splits into the bare noun at the front and niet at the end, resulting in: Shampoo gebruikt hij niet.
Learn Shampoo gebruikt hij niet veel and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free