Breakdown of Zij kust hem op de wang en knijpt hem in de kin.
zij
she
en
and
in
in
op
on
hem
him
kussen
to kiss
knijpen
to pinch
de wang
the cheek
de kin
the chin
Questions & Answers about Zij kust hem op de wang en knijpt hem in de kin.
Why does the sentence use de wang and de kin instead of zijn wang and zijn kin?
This is the "possessive shift" often used with body parts. Instead of using a possessive pronoun like zijn (his), Dutch places the person experiencing the action in the object position (hem) and uses a definite article (de) for the body part itself. It structurally mirrors the English phrasing "She kisses him on the cheek."
Why do we use op for the cheek but in for the chin?
Prepositions with body parts depend heavily on the physical action. You kiss the flat surface of a cheek (op de wang). However, pinching involves grabbing and pressing into the flesh, which Dutch conceptualizes as going into the body part. Therefore, you use in de kin (in the chin) or in de arm (in the arm).
Is it strictly necessary to repeat hem in the second half of the sentence?
Yes. Because we are using the possessive shift construction, the object pronoun (hem) is the only thing indicating whose chin is being pinched. If you dropped it (en knijpt in de kin), it would sound strangely disconnected, as if she were pinching a random, disembodied chin.
How would this sentence change if she were pinching her own chin?
To use this same structure for an action done to oneself, you replace the object pronoun with a reflexive pronoun. It would become Zij knijpt zich in de kin. You could also fall back on the standard possessive (Zij knijpt in haar kin), but the reflexive version sounds very natural and idiomatic in Dutch.
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