Breakdown of Hun inzending is uitstekend, dus de universiteit biedt hun een contract aan.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
hun
their
het contract
the contract
dus
so, therefore
de universiteit
the university
uitstekend
excellent
aanbieden
to offer
de inzending
the submission
Questions & Answers about Hun inzending is uitstekend, dus de universiteit biedt hun een contract aan.
Why is the word hun used twice here, and do they mean the same thing?
They have different grammatical roles! The first hun is a possessive pronoun meaning "their" (hun inzending = their submission). The second hun is an object pronoun meaning "them". In formal written Dutch, we use hun for "them" when it is an indirect object without a preposition, like here where the university is offering a contract to them.
Could I use hen instead of the second hun in this sentence?
In strict formal writing, no. Because they are the indirect object receiving the contract, and there is no preposition like aan before them, you must use hun. You would only use hen if they were the direct object, or if you included the preposition, saying biedt een contract aan hen. In everyday speech, however, many Dutch people mix these up or just use ze.
Why is aan at the very end of the sentence?
It is part of the separable verb aanbieden (to offer). In a main clause, the conjugated part (biedt) takes the second position, and the prefix (aan) gets pushed to the very end of the clause.
After dus, why is the word order de universiteit biedt rather than inverting the subject and verb?
Dus (so/therefore) is acting as a coordinating conjunction here. It connects two main clauses without changing the normal Subject-Verb word order. Note that dus can sometimes also act as an adverb, which would trigger inversion (...dus biedt de universiteit...), but the regular main clause word order shown here is very common and completely correct.
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