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De docent past de les aan het niveau van elke leerling aan.

De docent past de les aan het niveau van elke leerling aan.
The teacher adjusts the lesson to the level of every pupil.

Breakdown of De docent past de les aan het niveau van elke leerling aan.

elke
every
van
of
de docent
the teacher
de les
the lesson
aanpassen
to adjust
het niveau
the level
de leerling
the pupil
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Questions & Answers about De docent past de les aan het niveau van elke leerling aan.

Why are there two aans in this sentence?

They come from two different sources:

  • The first aan is the separable prefix of the verb aanpassen (“to adapt”). In a main clause, that prefix gets pulled off and moved to the end.
  • The second aan is the preposition meaning “to” or “according to,” introducing het niveau van elke leerling.

They just happen to look identical in spelling but serve different grammatical roles.

How do you conjugate aanpassen in the present tense, and why is it past … aan here?

Aanpassen is a separable verb: the base is passen, the prefix is aan. To conjugate in the present tense:

  • ik pas aan
  • jij past aan
  • hij/zij/het past aan
  • wij passen aan
    … and so on.

In our sentence, the subject is de docent (third-person singular), so you use past. Because it’s a main clause, the prefix aan goes to the very end, yielding past … aan.

Why is de les placed between past and aan?

Dutch word order for separable verbs in a main clause is:

  1. Subject (de docent)
  2. Finite verb (past)
  3. Other elements (object, adverbials)
  4. Separable prefix (aan)

So de les (the direct object) naturally sits after past and before the moved-prefix aan.

Why do we say het niveau and not de niveau?
The noun niveau is a borrowed French word and is classified as a neuter noun (a het-word) in Dutch. All neuter nouns take het in the singular.
Could we use iedere instead of elke in elke leerling? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say iedere leerling or elke leerling with almost the same meaning (“each/every pupil”).

  • elke often stresses each individual item separately.
  • iedere can sound slightly more formal or general.

But in everyday use they’re interchangeable here.

How would you replace de les with a pronoun?

Since les is a de-word, you can use the object pronoun hem:

  • De docent past hem aan.

You could also use a demonstrative pronoun if you’ve just mentioned the lesson:

  • De docent past die aan.
Are there alternative verbs to express “adapt to” in Dutch?

Yes. A common synonym is afstemmen op, also a separable verb:

  • De docent stemt de les af op het niveau van elke leerling.
    Here op is the preposition, and in a main clause op moves to the end in the same way.