Breakdown of Het zonnepaneel voor het wijkcentrum is duur, maar er wordt toch voor gekozen.
zijn
to be
maar
but
duur
expensive
kiezen
to choose
voor
for (on behalf of)
worden
to become
toch
still, anyway (particle) / right? (question tag)
er
it (in 'er ... op/mee', pronominal adverb)
het wijkcentrum
community center
het zonnepaneel
solar panel
Questions & Answers about Het zonnepaneel voor het wijkcentrum is duur, maar er wordt toch voor gekozen.
Why does the second clause use er wordt... voor gekozen instead of using het as the subject ("het wordt gekozen")?
When you make a passive sentence out of a verb with a fixed preposition (like kiezen voor, meaning "to opt for"), you cannot use het (it) as the grammatical subject. Instead, Dutch uses a subjectless passive structure with er plus the preposition. So, "it is being chosen" becomes er wordt voor gekozen (literally: "there is being opted for").
Why are er and voor separated by wordt toch in this sentence?
Er and voor together form the pronominal adverb ervoor (for it), which replaces "voor het zonnepaneel". In Dutch clauses, er usually wants to sit as close to the beginning of the clause as possible (right after the conjunction maar), while the preposition part (voor) gets pushed toward the end, landing just before the past participle (gekozen). The verb wordt and adverb toch naturally fall in the space between them.
Why do we need the preposition voor here at all if kiezen just means "to choose"?
While you can use kiezen on its own as a direct transitive verb, Dutch frequently uses the fixed prepositional verb kiezen voor to mean "to opt for", "to decide on", or "to go with" a specific option. Because the underlying active thought is "men kiest voor het zonnepaneel" (people opt for the solar panel), that specific preposition must stick around in the passive version.
What exact nuance does toch add to this sentence?
Toch acts as a contrastive adverb here, translating to "anyway", "nevertheless", or "still". It highlights that the high cost of the solar panel (duur) would normally be a reason to reject it, but they are proceeding with the choice regardless.
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