Word
De werknemer is dan ook erg moe.
Meaning
The employee is therefore very tired.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De werknemer is dan ook erg moe.
zijn
to be
moe
tired
erg
very / really
de werknemer
the employee
Questions & Answers about De werknemer is dan ook erg moe.
I know dan means "then" and ook means "also". How do they mean "therefore" together here?
When combined into a particle cluster, dan ook acts as a consequential adverb meaning "therefore" or "consequently". It shows that the employee's tiredness is a logical, expected result of something previously mentioned. It is softer and more conversational than a strict cause-and-effect word like daarom.
Why is dan ook placed after the verb is? Could I put it at the start of the sentence?
In this consequential meaning, dan ook typically belongs in the middle field of the sentence, which is the space right after the finite verb (is). Unlike daarom, which frequently starts a sentence and causes the verb to swap places with the subject, you generally cannot start a sentence with this specific dan ook cluster.
Could I just use daarom to say "therefore" in this sentence?
You could, but the sentence structure and tone would change. You would likely say Daarom is de werknemer erg moe. While daarom points strongly to a specific reason, dan ook acts more like a confirming particle that signals "as you might expect, therefore..." without heavily stressing the cause itself.
Why use erg instead of heel for "very" in this sentence?