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Bij harde regen kunnen we in het café schuilen.

Bij harde regen kunnen we in het café schuilen.
In heavy rain we can shelter in the café.
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Questions & Answers about Bij harde regen kunnen we in het café schuilen.

What does bij mean in bij harde regen and why is it used with a noun phrase?

Here bij means “in case of” or “when there is.” Dutch often uses bij + noun (especially weather nouns) to express a condition or circumstance:
• bij harde regen = “in case of heavy rain” / “when it’s raining heavily.”

Why not say “als het hard regent” instead of “bij harde regen”?

Both are correct, but they differ in style:
• bij harde regen uses bij + noun for a concise, noun-based condition.
• als het hard regent uses a full subordinate clause with als (“if/when”), followed by the verb at the end (“regent”).
Meaning stays the same, but bij + noun is more compact and common in announcements or advice.

Why is the adjective harde inflected with an -e? Why not just hard regen?

In Dutch, attributive adjectives (those directly before a noun) almost always take -e when describing a de-word or when the noun is definite or indefinite but general:
• harde regen (“heavy rain”), because regen is a de-word and the adjective comes before it.

Why is there no article before harde regen? Would “bij de harde regen” be wrong?

Omitting the article makes it a generic statement: “in case of heavy rain (in general).”
• bij harde regen (generic) vs. bij de harde regen (more specific, e.g. “in case of that heavy rain we discussed”).
The generic form is most natural here.

Why does kunnen come before we in this sentence?

Dutch main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be the second element.

  1. First element: bij harde regen (adverbial phrase)
  2. Second element: kunnen (finite verb)
  3. Then the subject: we
    Thus: “Bij harde regen – kunnen – we – in het café – schuilen.”
What does schuilen mean? Is it transitive or intransitive?

schuilen = “to take shelter,” “to seek refuge.”
• It’s intransitive: it doesn’t take a direct object.
Examples:

  • “Ik schuil onder een boom.” (“I’m taking shelter under a tree.”)
  • “We schuilen voor de wind.” (“We’re sheltering from the wind.”)
Why is it in het café and not in café or with naar?

• in + definite article: het café is a neuter singular noun; you cannot drop the article (“in café” is ungrammatical).
• in het café = location (“inside the café”).
• naar het café = motion towards (“to the café”), not “sheltering inside.”

Could you move schuilen to the very end: “Bij harde regen kunnen we schuilen in het café”?

Yes. Dutch allows flexible placement of non-finite verbs and prepositional phrases after the clause’s core:
• Original: “Bij harde regen kunnen we in het café schuilen.”
• Alternative: “Bij harde regen kunnen we schuilen in het café.”
Both are correct and mean the same; the original puts the location phrase in het café immediately before the verb for emphasis.