Breakdown of Soms helpt de politie bij het kruispunt om het verkeer te regelen.
om
for
soms
sometimes
helpen
to help
bij
at
het verkeer
the traffic
het kruispunt
the intersection
de politie
the police
regelen
to regulate
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Questions & Answers about Soms helpt de politie bij het kruispunt om het verkeer te regelen.
What does soms mean in this sentence?
Soms translates as sometimes. It’s an adverb that indicates the action doesn’t happen all the time but rather occasionally.
Why is the verb helpt used instead of the plural form helpen?
Although de politie might seem like it refers to multiple people, it is actually a singular collective noun in Dutch. This is why the singular form helpt is used.
What is the function of the phrase bij het kruispunt?
Bij het kruispunt is a prepositional phrase meaning at the intersection. It specifies the location where the police are offering assistance.
How is purpose expressed in the phrase om het verkeer te regelen?
The clause om het verkeer te regelen employs an om + infinitive construction to express purpose. It answers the question: why are the police helping? In this case, they are helping to regulate the traffic.
Could you explain the overall structure of the sentence?
Certainly. The sentence is structured as follows: • Soms (adverb) – modifies the frequency of the action. • helpt (verb) – the main action. • de politie (subject) – the actor performing the action. • bij het kruispunt (prepositional phrase) – indicates the location. • om het verkeer te regelen (infinitive clause) – describes the purpose. This order is typical in Dutch, where the purpose clause follows the main clause.
Why is it het kruispunt instead of de kruispunt?
In Dutch, nouns are assigned a grammatical gender. Kruispunt is a neuter noun, which means it takes the neuter article het rather than de. This is an important detail to note when learning noun articles in Dutch.