Breakdown of Het vele overwerk is inmiddels onhoudbaar.
zijn
to be
veel
much / many / a lot of
het
it
inmiddels
meanwhile
Questions & Answers about Het vele overwerk is inmiddels onhoudbaar.
Why is it vele with an -e instead of just veel?
Here, veel (much/many) is acting as an attributive adjective modifying the noun overwerk (overtime). Because overwerk is a het-word preceded by a definite article (het), the adjective takes the standard -e ending, making it vele. While it literally means "the much overtime", it translates best as "the frequent overtime" or "the vast amount of overtime".
Could I just use nu instead of inmiddels?
You could, but inmiddels adds an important nuance. It translates to "by now" or "meanwhile" and implies a progression of time. Using inmiddels emphasizes that the overtime has slowly become unsustainable over a period of time, whereas nu (now) simply states a current fact without that built-in backstory.
How does the word onhoudbaar break down?
It is based on the verb houden (to hold or keep). Adding the suffix -baar (which acts exactly like the English "-able") creates houdbaar (sustainable, or in the context of food, non-perishable). Adding the negative prefix on- (un-) gives us onhoudbaar: unsustainable, untenable, or impossible to keep up.
Since this lesson covers the consequential particle dan ook, where would I put it in this sentence to mean " unsustainable by now"?