Breakdown of Of het stoombad zuiverend werkt!
werken
to work
of
emphatic exclamatory 'of' (boy, was it ...!)
het stoombad
the steam bath
zuiveren
to purify
Questions & Answers about Of het stoombad zuiverend werkt!
Why does this sentence start with Of when it is not a question asking 'whether' or 'or'?
In Dutch, starting an exclamation with Of creates a strong rhetorical effect meaning 'You bet it does!' or 'Does it ever!'. It takes what would normally be a dependent clause and turns it into an emphatic statement confirming that the action absolutely happens.
Since this is an exclamation, why is the verb werkt pushed to the very end?
Even though it stands alone as an exclamation, grammatically this is still a subordinate clause introduced by the conjunction Of. Just like in standard dependent clauses, the conjugated verb (werkt) is sent to the end of the sentence.
How is the word zuiverend formed and used here?
Zuiverend is the present participle of the verb zuiveren (to purify), formed by adding -d. Here it acts as an adverb describing how the steam bath works (werkt). You can translate it literally as 'purifyingly'.
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