Word
Daardoor richt de inbreker veel schade aan in de woonkamer.
Meaning
Because of that, the burglar causes a lot of damage in the living room.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Daardoor richt de inbreker veel schade aan in de woonkamer.
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
de schade
the damage
de woonkamer
the living room
Questions & Answers about Daardoor richt de inbreker veel schade aan in de woonkamer.
Why does richt come before the subject de inbreker?
Because the sentence starts with the causal adverb Daardoor. In Dutch, whenever a main clause starts with something other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places to keep the conjugated verb strictly in the second position. This is known as the V2 rule.
Could I use daarom instead of daardoor here?
Grammatically yes, and it would also trigger inversion, but the meaning changes slightly. Daardoor points to a direct, often physical cause and effect (e.g., he dropped his crowbar, and as a result caused damage). Daarom means 'for that reason' and implies a conscious motivation (e.g., he was angry, and for that reason chose to cause damage).
What is the full verb in this sentence, and why is it split up?
The full verb is aanrichten (to cause or inflict, usually referring to damage or havoc). It is a separable verb. In a main clause, the conjugated part (richt) takes the second position, while the separable prefix (aan) gets pushed towards the end of the sentence.
Could I put aan at the very end of the sentence, after in de woonkamer?
Yes, Daardoor richt de inbreker veel schade in de woonkamer aan is also perfectly correct. However, it is very common in Dutch to place extra information, like prepositional phrases of place (in de woonkamer), after the separable prefix. This often sounds more natural because it keeps the core action of the sentence from feeling too stretched out.