Breakdown of Mijn schooltas is zwaar, want er zitten drie boeken in.
zijn
to be
het boek
the book
in
in
want
because
mijn
my
er
there
zitten
to sit
drie
three
zwaar
heavy
de schooltas
the schoolbag
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Questions & Answers about Mijn schooltas is zwaar, want er zitten drie boeken in.
What does zwaar mean in this sentence?
zwaar is an adjective meaning heavy. Here it describes the school bag as being heavy.
Why is want used instead of omdat to mean "because"?
Both want and omdat mean because, but they behave differently:
- want is a coordinating conjunction. It joins two main clauses and does not change the normal Dutch word order (verb stays in second position).
- omdat is a subordinating conjunction. It sends the verb to the end of its clause.
If want doesn’t change word order, why is the verb still where it is after it?
Because want is coordinating, the clause that follows is treated like a main clause with the usual V2 (verb-second) rule. So er zitten puts zitten in the second position of that clause.
What is the role of er in er zitten drie boeken in?
er is an existential/dummy pronoun used in Dutch to:
- Fill the subject slot when talking about existence or presence.
- Let the real subject (drie boeken) come later in the sentence. Without er, you could say Drie boeken zitten in mijn schooltas, but using er is more idiomatic for existential statements.
Why does the preposition in appear at the end of the clause?
In Dutch, prepositions that form a relationship with the verb (here zitten in) usually appear after the main verb phrase. There is no rule against ending a sentence with a preposition in colloquial Dutch.
Could you front drie boeken and drop er, like Drie boeken zitten in mijn schooltas?
Yes, that’s grammatically correct. However:
- Drie boeken zitten er in (with er) is the neutral/existential way to say “there are three books in [it].”
- Drie boeken zitten in mijn schooltas puts more focus on which books and less on the existential “there are.”
Why is schooltas one word instead of school tas?
Dutch often forms compound nouns by joining two words into one. school + tas = schooltas (“school bag”).
Why is there no article before drie boeken?
When you use a numeral like drie to specify quantity, it acts as a determiner and you omit the definite or indefinite article.