Word
De geur van lavendel maakt dat het onrustige kind slaapt.
Meaning
The scent of lavender causes the restless child to sleep.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De geur van lavendel maakt dat het onrustige kind slaapt.
het kind
the child
maken
to make
slapen
to sleep
het
it
Questions & Answers about De geur van lavendel maakt dat het onrustige kind slaapt.
Why use maakt dat instead of translating 'makes the child sleep' directly?
In English, you can say 'makes the child sleep' (make + object + verb). Dutch does not use maken like this to express causing an action. Instead, you must use maakt dat (literally 'makes that') followed by a new clause with its own subject (het onrustige kind) and verb (slaapt).
How does maakt dat affect the word order in the second half of the sentence?
Because maakt dat contains the conjunction dat (that), it introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb is pushed to the very end. That is why slaapt comes after its subject het onrustige kind.
Why is it onrustige with an extra -e if kind is a het word?
Adjectives before a neuter (het) noun only lose their -e ending when the noun is indefinite (like when preceded by een, e.g., een onrustig kind). Since this sentence uses the definite article het, the adjective gets the standard -e ending, resulting in het onrustige kind.
Could I use laten instead of maakt dat here?