Wat hij naar de media lekt, is zeer vertrouwelijk.
What he leaks to the media is highly confidential.
Breakdown of Wat hij naar de media lekt, is zeer vertrouwelijk.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
naar
to
wat
that / which (relative)
zeer
very (formal register)
vertrouwelijk
confidential
lekken
to leak
de media
the media
Questions & Answers about Wat hij naar de media lekt, is zeer vertrouwelijk.
Is naar being used as an evidential framing clause here, like in the rest of this lesson?
No, this sentence shows a more literal, standard use of naar as a preposition meaning "to". The verb phrase here is lekken naar (to leak to). In evidential clauses like naar ik weet (as far as I know), naar acts as a conjunction followed by a subject and a cognitive verb. Here, naar de media simply shows where the leaked information is going.
Why are there two verbs right next to each other (lekt, is)?
This happens because the entire first part of the sentence (Wat hij naar de media lekt) acts as the subject of the main sentence. Inside that subclause, the verb lekt is pushed to the end. Since Dutch uses V2 (verb-second) word order in main clauses, the main verb is must come immediately after that entire subject block.
Why does the sentence start with Wat instead of Dat?
Here, Wat means "What" in the sense of "That which" or "The things that". It acts as an independent relative pronoun because it doesn't refer back to a specific noun. If you started with Dat (That), it would act as a subordinating conjunction meaning "The fact that he leaks to the media is highly confidential," which changes the meaning slightly from the actual information he is leaking.
Could I use heel instead of zeer for "highly"?
Yes, heel vertrouwelijk (very confidential) is grammatically correct and perfectly fine for everyday speech. However, zeer is slightly more formal and intense, which fits the serious, professional tone of someone leaking sensitive information to the press.
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