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Questions & Answers about Mijn fietsband is lek, dus ik kan niet naar school fietsen.
What does fietsband mean?
It’s a compound of fiets (bike) and band (tire), so fietsband means a bicycle tire.
What does lek mean here, and is it an adjective or a noun?
In this sentence lek is an adjective meaning flat or punctured. It describes the state of the tire. Dutch adjectives used predicatively after a linking verb don’t take an extra -e, so you say is lek. Attributively (before a noun) it becomes lekke, as in een lekke band.
How do you express “my bicycle tire” in Dutch, and why is it mijn fietsband?
Dutch uses the possessive pronoun mijn for “my,” placed directly before the noun without extra endings. It works for both de- and het-words. So mijn fietsband means “my bicycle tire.” Informally you might see m’n fietsband in writing.
What is the function of dus, and why does the verb still come second in dus ik kan niet naar school fietsen?
Dus means “so” or “therefore.” It’s a coordinating conjunction linking two main clauses. Unlike subordinating conjunctions, it doesn’t send the finite verb to the end. You still use V2 order after dus, hence dus ik kan....
Why is fietsen placed at the end of ik kan niet naar school fietsen?
With a modal verb like kan (from kunnen), Dutch splits the verb frame: the finite verb stays in the V2 slot and the infinitive (fietsen) goes to the end. The negation niet generally comes before the phrase it negates—in this case naar school fietsen.
Why do we use naar school fietsen, not op school fietsen, to say “cycle to school”?
To express movement toward a destination, Dutch uses naar plus the place. Op school indicates location (“at school”), so naar school fietsen means “to cycle to school,” while op school fietsen would suggest you’re cycling around on the school grounds.
Could you also say ik kan niet fietsen naar school instead? What changes?
While ik kan niet fietsen naar school is grammatically possible, it’s less idiomatic. Standard Dutch prefers ik kan niet naar school fietsen, keeping the destination phrase—naar school—immediately before fietsen.
Why is kan (from kunnen) used here instead of ga (from gaan)?
Kan expresses ability (“can’t”), which fits a punctured tire. Ga simply indicates movement (“going”). Ik ga niet naar school fietsen would mean you’re choosing not to cycle, whereas ik kan niet… states that you aren’t able to.
If I want to replace mijn fietsband with a pronoun, how would I say “It’s flat, so I can’t cycle to school”?
Since fietsband is a de-word (common gender), you refer back to it with hij:
Hij is lek, dus ik kan niet naar school fietsen.