Zij blijft roeren totdat de soep warm is.

She keeps stirring until the soup is warm.

Breakdown of Zij blijft roeren totdat de soep warm is.

• zijn: to be
• zij: she
• blijven: to stay
• warm: warm
• totdat: until
• de soep: the soup
• roeren: to stir

Questions & Answers about Zij blijft roeren totdat de soep warm is.

Why do we say Zij blijft roeren instead of just Zij roert?

blijven + infinitive expresses continuous or repeated action (just like English keep stirring).

• Zij blijft roeren = She keeps stirring
• Zij roert = She stirs (once or as a habit, no emphasis on continuation)

Why does blijft end in -t?

In the present tense, Dutch verbs take -t in the third-person singular (hij/zij/het).

• Stem of blijven = blijf
• blijf + t = blijft for zij/hij/het

Can we use ze instead of zij, or omit the pronoun entirely?

• zij and ze both mean she.
  • zij = strong/stressed form (emphasis or sentence-initial)
  • ze = weak/unstressed form (more common in speech)
• You cannot drop the subject pronoun in Dutch (non-pro-drop language), except in very fixed impersonal cases like het regent.

Why is the verb in totdat de soep warm is at the end of the clause?

totdat is a subordinating conjunction (meaning until linking to a clause). In Dutch, subordinating conjunctions force verb-final word order:
… de soep (subject) + warm (predicate adjective) + is (verb)

What’s the difference between tot and totdat?

• Use tot before a noun or fixed time expression:
  • tot morgen (until tomorrow)
  • tot vijf uur (until five o’clock)
• Use totdat before a full clause with its own verb:
  • totdat de soep warm is (until the soup is warm)

Could we also say Zij blijft aan het roeren here? How does aan het + infinitive compare to blijven + infinitive?

Yes. blijft aan het roeren is the progressive construction (like English be stirring):

• blijven + infinitive = slightly more formal/written (“keep stirring”)
• aan het + infinitive = very common in spoken Dutch (“be stirring”)
  Both stress ongoing action and are correct in this sentence.

Why is it is warm instead of wordt warm, and can we use worden here?

• is warm (stative use of zijn) describes the soup’s final state (“until the soup is warm”).
• wordt warm (use of worden) highlights the process of heating (“until the soup becomes warm”).
  Both are grammatical; the nuance shifts slightly from state (is) to change/process (wordt).

Is roeren a separable verb, and how do we pronounce it?

• roeren is not separable; it’s an -eren verb (stem roer-).
• Regular weak pattern: past tense roerde, past participle geroerd.
• Pronunciation: [ˈruː.rə(n)]
  • oe = /uː/ as in English “rule”
  • second e = part of the infinitive ending -en