Questions & Answers about Zij koesteren de eer van hun familie.
How would we rewrite this sentence to fit the current lesson's 'pseudo-cleft' structure to emphasize what they cherish?
You would start with Wat (What), make the first part a subordinate clause (which pushes the verb koesteren to the end), and connect it to the focus of the sentence using is. The result is: Wat zij koesteren is de eer van hun familie. (What they cherish is their family's honour.)
Is the verb koesteren only used for positive things, like 'cherishing' a family or a memory?
Not always! While it is frequently used positively, as in een droom koesteren (to cherish a dream), it can also mean to 'harbor' or 'nurse' something negative. For example, you can wrok koesteren (to harbor a grudge) or haat koesteren (to harbor hatred).
The English translation says 'their family's honour'. Why doesn't the Dutch use a possessive 's here?
In Dutch, the van construction (de eer van hun familie) is the standard way to express possession for regular nouns. The possessive 's is mostly reserved for names of people (like Anna's auto) or family titles used almost like names (mijn moeders huis). For a group noun like familie, using van is much more natural.
Could I use the unstressed pronoun ze instead of zij in this sentence?
Yes, you could absolutely use ze here. However, using zij places a slight emphasis on the subject, implying they are the ones cherishing the honour. Furthermore, words like koesteren and eer give the sentence a slightly formal or literary tone, and the full form zij matches that register perfectly.
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