Breakdown of Het verbruik in de hoogste versnelling is veel lager dan dat van de andere auto.
zijn
to be
de auto
the car
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
dat
that (het-words)
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
hoog
high / tall
laag
low
dan
than
ander
other
het verbruik
the consumption
de versnelling
the gear (transmission) / the acceleration
Questions & Answers about Het verbruik in de hoogste versnelling is veel lager dan dat van de andere auto.
Why is it dat van instead of die van in this sentence?
Dat refers back to the noun we are comparing, which is het verbruik (the consumption). Because verbruik is a het-word, we must use the demonstrative pronoun dat. If we were referring back to a de-word, we would use die van.
Would the sentence still make sense if I left out dat van and just said dan de andere auto?
No, because then you would literally be comparing the consumption to a car (The consumption is lower than the other car). Using dat van (that of) ensures you are logically comparing the consumption of one car to the consumption of the other.
Why do we use veel lager instead of heel lager to say 'much lower'?
In Dutch, you use veel to amplify a comparative adjective (like lager). Words like heel or erg (very) are used with base adjectives (e.g., heel laag for very low), but they cannot be combined with comparatives.
Why does andere get an -e ending here?
Auto is a de-word. When an adjective (like ander) comes before a de-word and is preceded by a definite article like de, it gets an -e at the end. You can see this same standard adjective ending rule applied earlier in the sentence with de hoogste versnelling.
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