Hardlopen in het park is rustgevend.

to be

Breakdown of Hardlopen in het park is rustgevend.

• in: in
• het park: the park
• rustgevend: relaxing

Questions & Answers about Hardlopen in het park is rustgevend.

What part of speech is hardlopen in this sentence?

Even though hardlopen looks like a verb (the infinitive “to run”), it’s functioning here as a noun. Dutch frequently uses the infinitive as a noun when talking about an activity in general (e.g. zwemmen = swimming, fietsen = cycling).

Why is there no article before hardlopen in het park?

When you describe an activity in a general sense, Dutch often omits the article. You could say Het hardlopen in het park is rustgevend, but dropping het is more colloquial and common.

How do I know whether to use de or het for park?

Dutch nouns are either de-words or het-words, and unfortunately there’s no foolproof rule—many must be memorized. You can consult a dictionary to see that park is a het-word, so you say het park.

Why doesn’t rustgevend take an -e ending here (like rustgevende)?

Adjectives used predicatively (after a linking verb such as is) remain uninflected. Just as you say Het is mooi (not Het is mooie), you say is rustgevend, not is rustgevende.