Breakdown of Bij de uitreiking van het diploma voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
Questions & Answers about Bij de uitreiking van het diploma voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
Dutch normally puts the finite verb (here voelt) in second position in a main clause (the V2 rule).
- Neutral word order: Anna voelt zich erg dankbaar bij de uitreiking van het diploma.
Subject (Anna) is first, verb (voelt) is second.
If you move a different element to the front for emphasis or context (here, the prepositional phrase Bij de uitreiking van het diploma), that element occupies the first position. The finite verb still has to be second, so the subject comes after the verb:
- Bij de uitreiking van het diploma (1st position)
- voelt (2nd position: the finite verb)
- Anna zich erg dankbaar (rest of the sentence)
So the inversion voelt Anna is grammatically required once you front that phrase.
With zich voelen (to feel + adjective), Dutch usually uses a reflexive pronoun:
- Anna voelt zich erg dankbaar. – Anna feels very grateful.
Leaving out zich sounds wrong or very foreign:
- ✗ Anna voelt erg dankbaar. – ungrammatical / unnatural.
Some Dutch verbs must take a reflexive pronoun in certain meanings (like zich voelen, zich schamen, zich herinneren). Here, zich doesn’t add extra meaning; it’s just required by the verb pattern zich + voelen + adjective.
Both are correct but slightly different in nuance:
Anna voelt zich erg dankbaar.
Focuses on her internal, subjective feeling at that moment. It’s like “She feels very grateful (right now).”Anna is erg dankbaar.
Sounds a bit more factual or general: “She is very grateful.” It can still be about the moment, but it’s less explicitly about her inner sensation.
In many everyday contexts they can be interchangeable, but if you want to emphasize the emotional experience itself, voelt zich is more precise.
In Bij de uitreiking van het diploma, bij roughly means “at” / “on the occasion of”.
- It describes the situation or event in whose context something happens:
- Bij het ontbijt drink ik koffie. – At breakfast I drink coffee.
- Bij mooi weer gaan we naar het strand. – When the weather is nice, we go to the beach.
Here it’s:
- Bij de uitreiking van het diploma voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
→ At / during the diploma ceremony, Anna feels very grateful.
So bij here combines the ideas “at (location in time)” and “on the occasion of.” English can translate this naturally as “At the diploma ceremony, …” or “When the diploma is awarded, …”.
tijdens de uitreiking = during the ceremony
Focuses more clearly on time span: while the ceremony is happening.bij de uitreiking = at / on the occasion of the ceremony
Slightly broader: it can mean “at that event / in that situation,” not just the exact duration.op de uitreiking
This is possible but much less common; for events, Dutch usually prefers bij or tijdens. Op is more natural with physical locations (op school, op kantoor) or some fixed expressions.
In your sentence, bij de uitreiking and tijdens de uitreiking would both be acceptable, with a subtle shift of focus (situation vs. time-span). Bij is very idiomatic here.
In Dutch, every noun is either a de-word (common gender) or a het-word (neuter gender), and you just have to learn which is which.
- diploma is a het-word, so you say:
- het diploma
- een diploma
- dit/het diploma (this/the diploma)
Using de diploma would be incorrect, because the grammatical gender of diploma is neuter.
There isn’t a general rule that lets you predict this from the form; it’s mostly a matter of vocabulary learning.
Uitreiking van het diploma is a noun phrase:
- uitreiking – “award(ing) / presentation”
- van het diploma – a genitive-like phrase, literally “of the diploma”
So it means “the awarding of the diploma.” Dutch commonly uses van + noun to indicate what something is about or belongs to, similar to English of.
You could also use a compound:
- de diplomauitreiking – “the diploma-awarding ceremony”
Both patterns are standard:
- de uitreiking van het diploma
- de diplomauitreiking
The “van”-phrase is often a bit more formal or explicit; the compound is more compact and common in speech.
Yes, that word order is completely correct:
- Anna voelt zich erg dankbaar bij de uitreiking van het diploma.
Differences:
- With Anna first, this is the neutral, unmarked word order.
- With Bij de uitreiking van het diploma first, you give more emphasis on the context/event:
- Bij de uitreiking van het diploma voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
→ “At the diploma ceremony, Anna feels very grateful” (focus on that moment).
- Bij de uitreiking van het diploma voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
So both are right; choosing one or the other mainly affects emphasis and style, not grammar.
In a main clause like this, after the finite verb (voelt), Dutch has a fairly fixed preferred order in the “middle field”:
- Subject pronoun or noun (if it isn’t in first position)
- (Reflexive) pronouns and objects
- Adverbs (like erg)
- Predicative adjectives (like dankbaar)
So:
- voelt (finite verb)
- Anna (subject)
- zich (reflexive pronoun)
- erg (adverb modifying the adjective)
- dankbaar (adjective)
→ voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar
Orders like erg zich dankbaar or dankbaar zich erg break this normal pattern and sound wrong or at least very strange. Pronouns want to be close to the verb; adverbs modifying an adjective usually come before the adjective and after pronouns.
All three can mean something like “very”:
- erg dankbaar – very / really grateful (neutral, very common in speech)
- heel dankbaar – very grateful (also very common)
- zeer dankbaar – very / extremely grateful (more formal, often written)
Minor nuances:
- erg sometimes carries a slight emotional or subjective feel (“really, so”).
- heel is very common and neutral.
- zeer is more formal/literary or “stronger,” like “extremely.”
In your sentence, you could say:
- … voelt Anna zich erg dankbaar.
- … voelt Anna zich heel dankbaar.
- … voelt Anna zich zeer dankbaar.
All are grammatically correct; the choice is mostly about style and register.