Breakdown of Bij het tankstation tanken wij altijd.
het tankstation
the gas station
tanken
to fill up (with fuel)
Questions & Answers about Bij het tankstation tanken wij altijd.
Why do we use bij here to mean "at", rather than op or in?
In Dutch, bij is the standard preposition when you are at a business, institution, or someone's place. You use it for locations like bij het tankstation (at the gas station), bij de bakker (at the bakery), or bij de dokter (at the doctor's).
Why is the word order tanken wij instead of wij tanken?
This is a classic case of inversion. Because the prepositional phrase Bij het tankstation takes up the first position in the sentence, the verb tanken must remain in the second position, pushing the subject wij to the third spot.
Does the verb tanken only apply to getting petrol?
Yes, tanken specifically means to refuel a vehicle (with gas, petrol, or diesel) or to recharge an EV. It comes from the noun tank (fuel tank). If you were filling a water bottle or a bucket, you would use the verb vullen instead.
This lesson focuses on nadat (after). How would we turn this sentence into a nadat clause to say "After we fill up at the gas station..."?
Because nadat requires the subordinate clause to describe a completed action that happened before the main clause, you must shift it to the present perfect tense. You would say: Nadat wij bij het tankstation hebben getankt... followed by a present tense main clause like ...rijden we verder (...we drive on).
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