Breakdown of Al wat hij geërfd heeft, is van mij.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
mij
me
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
erven
to inherit
al wat
whatever
Questions & Answers about Al wat hij geërfd heeft, is van mij.
Why use al wat here instead of alles wat?
Al wat is a universal inclusive pronoun meaning whatever or all that. While you could say alles wat (everything that), al wat acts as a single cohesive unit expressing no matter what it is. It adds a slightly more formal or emphatic tone than just using wat.
Why are there two verbs back-to-back (heeft, is) in the middle of the sentence?
The entire first clause, Al wat hij geërfd heeft, acts as the subject of the main sentence. Since that whole clause occupies the first position, the main verb is must come immediately after it to satisfy the Dutch verb-second rule.
The infinitive is erven (to inherit). Why does the past participle geërfd end in a d if it has an f right before it?
This is a classic spelling trap! To determine if a past participle gets a -t or a -d, you look at the last letter of the verb stem before -en is removed. For erven, that letter is a v. Because v is a voiced consonant (it is not in the 't kofschip group), the past participle takes a -d. Dutch spelling rules then change the v to an f because syllables cannot end in a v, giving us geërfd.
Why does geërfd have two dots (a trema) on the second e?
Could I say is mijn instead of is van mij to mean is mine?
No, you cannot just say is mijn. In Dutch, mijn must always be followed by a noun (like mijn huis). To say something is mine without repeating the noun, using van mij (literally of me) is the most common and natural phrasing. You could also say is het mijne, but that sounds much more formal.
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