Breakdown of Niet dat jouw argument tekortschiet, maar er ontbreekt wat nuance.
niet
not
maar
but
jouw
your
er
there (existential)
dat
that (conjunction)
wat
something / some (a little)
ontbreken
to be missing
het argument
the argument (reasoning)
tekortschieten
to fall short
de nuance
the nuance
Questions & Answers about Niet dat jouw argument tekortschiet, maar er ontbreekt wat nuance.
How does niet dat affect the word order in the first half of the sentence?
The phrase niet dat introduces a subordinate clause. Because of this, the conjugated verb—in this case, tekortschiet—is pushed to the very end of the clause before the comma. It functions exactly like dat (that) or omdat (because) in terms of word order.
Why is the separable verb tekortschieten written as a single word (tekortschiet) here?
Because it is in a subordinate clause. Normally in a main clause, the verb separates (for example: Jouw argument schiet tekort). However, when a subordinate clause pushes the verb to the end of the sentence, the prefix (tekort) and the verb (schiet) are reunited into a single word.
Why do we use er in the second clause (er ontbreekt wat nuance)?
Here, er acts as a dummy subject, much like "there" in the English phrase "there is a problem." Dutch strongly prefers using er when introducing an indefinite subject (in this case, wat nuance). Saying maar wat nuance ontbreekt without er would sound unnatural to a native speaker.
Wait, isn't wat a question word meaning "what"?
It can be, but here it is used as an indefinite pronoun meaning "some" or "a bit of." Saying wat nuance is a very natural, conversational way of expressing "some nuance."
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