Breakdown of De vip voor wie de butler klaarstaat, hoeft maar te wenken of hij komt.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
komen
to come
wie
who
voor
for (on behalf of)
Questions & Answers about De vip voor wie de butler klaarstaat, hoeft maar te wenken of hij komt.
Why does the sentence use of here if the English translation says 'and'?
In the specific structure hoeven maar te (only have to) + infinitive + of, the word of sets up a cause-and-effect relationship. While normally meaning 'or' or 'whether', in this pattern it functions like 'and immediately' or 'and then'. It shows that the second action happens the moment the first one does.
Why do we use voor wie instead of waarvoor here?
Because de vip refers to a person. In Dutch, when combining a preposition with a relative pronoun for a thing, you use waar + preposition (like waarvoor). But for people, you must use the preposition + wie. So 'for whom' becomes voor wie.
Why is hoeft placed right after the comma, before any new subject?
The entire first chunk of the sentence, De vip voor wie de butler klaarstaat, acts as the subject. Dutch main clauses use 'Verb Second' (V2) word order, meaning the conjugated verb must be the second element. Since that whole long subject takes up position one, the verb hoeft must come immediately after it.
Doesn't of usually send the verb to the end of the sentence? Why is it of hij komt?