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Breakdown of Fietsen naar het werk is vermoeiend.
zijn
to be
naar
to
het werk
the work
vermoeiend
tiring
de fiets
the bike
Questions & Answers about Fietsen naar het werk is vermoeiend.
Why does the sentence use fietsen (plural form) instead of fiets?
In Dutch, fietsen can function as a verb meaning "to cycle," but it also serves as a verbal noun (similar to the gerund in English). In this sentence, fietsen naar het werk is treated as the subject (the activity of cycling to work), so we use the verb form fietsen rather than the singular noun fiets (which means "bicycle").
Why is is used before vermoeiend instead of any other verb form?
Because fietsen naar het werk here acts as a single activity (the subject), it is grammatically singular. Therefore, we use the third-person singular form is. In Dutch, the verb agrees with the subject in number and person, similar to English (e.g., "Cycling to work is tiring").
What part of speech is vermoeiend in this sentence?
Vermoeiend is an adjective describing the subject fietsen naar het werk. It tells you the nature of this activity: that it is tiring or exhausting.
Why is naar het werk used rather than just naar werk?
In Dutch, het werk is often used with the definite article het to indicate a specific workplace or job context. Omitting het would sound unnatural in most cases, so we typically say naar het werk to mean "to (the) work."
How would you normally place words if you wanted to mention "every day": for example, "Cycling to work every day is tiring"?
In Dutch, you could insert elke dag (every day) right before or after the phrase naar het werk. For example:
- Fietsen naar het werk elke dag is vermoeiend.
- Elke dag fietsen naar het werk is vermoeiend.
Both orders are possible, but the second version sounds more natural in everyday speech.
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