Word
Voordat de bal in het water viel, stuiterde hij over de straat.
Meaning
Before the ball fell into the water, it bounced across the street.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Voordat de bal in het water viel, stuiterde hij over de straat.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
het water
the water
in
in
vallen
to fall
Questions & Answers about Voordat de bal in het water viel, stuiterde hij over de straat.
How does the verb 'stuiteren' demonstrate the '-eren' suffix from this lesson?
Stuiteren (to bounce) is an iterative verb derived from the base verb stuiten (which can mean to bounce once, or to strike/halt against something). Adding the -eren suffix indicates a repeated, continuous action, perfectly describing a ball bouncing multiple times across the street.
Why is the word order 'stuiterde hij' instead of 'hij stuiterde'?
This is an example of verb-second (V2) inversion. The sentence starts with the entire subordinate clause Voordat de bal in het water viel. Since that whole clause occupies the first position of the sentence, the main verb (stuiterde) must come immediately after it in the second position, pushing the subject (hij) to the third position.
The translation says 'it bounced', but the Dutch sentence uses 'hij'. Why not use 'het'?
In Dutch, pronouns must match the article of the noun they replace. Bal is a de-word. For almost all de-words representing non-living objects, Dutch speakers use hij to say 'it'. You only use het to refer back to het-words.
Why does the verb 'viel' go to the very end of the first part of the sentence?
The word voordat (before) is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a subordinate clause, which triggers a specific word order rule in Dutch: all verbs in that clause are pushed to the very end.