Learn Hardcore Dutch: De hoofdpersoon lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman. - The main character seems younger in the adaptation than in the novel.

De hoofdpersoon is jonger… → The main character is younger… (a fact)
De hoofdpersoon lijkt jonger… → The main character seems / appears younger… (it looks that way, but it might not be objectively true)

So lijkt adds a sense of subjectivity or impression, just like seems in English.

Why does lijkt come right after De hoofdpersoon?

Dutch main clauses follow the verb-second (V2) rule: the finite verb (here: lijkt) must be in the second position in the sentence.

De hoofdpersoon = first element
lijkt = finite verb → must come second
the rest (in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman) comes after the verb

If you start the sentence with something else, the verb still stays second:

In de verfilming lijkt de hoofdpersoon jonger dan in de roman.
In de roman lijkt de hoofdpersoon ouder dan in de verfilming.

The subject then moves after the verb, but the verb is still in position 2.

Could I also say: De hoofdpersoon lijkt jonger in de verfilming dan in de roman.?

Yes, that is also correct and very natural.

Both are fine:

De hoofdpersoon lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman.
De hoofdpersoon lijkt jonger in de verfilming dan in de roman.

The difference is tiny:

In the original, in de verfilming is emphasised a bit earlier.
In the alternative, the focus is slightly more on the comparison jonger … dan ….

In everyday speech and writing, both word orders are used and usually feel equivalent.

Why is it jonger and not something like meer jong?

Dutch normally forms the comparative of adjectives by adding -er, just like English often adds -er:

jong → jonger (young → younger)
oud → ouder
dik → dikker
lang → langer

Using meer jong is grammatically possible but sounds very unnatural here. For short, common adjectives like jong, you should always use the -er form (jonger) for the comparative.

Why doesn’t jonger have an -e at the end (like jongere)?

Dutch adjectives get an -e ending in many cases when they stand before a noun:

een jonge man (a young man)
de jonge hoofdpersoon (the young main character)
een jongere acteur (a younger actor)

But in your sentence, jonger stands after the verb and is not directly before a noun. It’s part of the predicate:

De hoofdpersoon lijkt jonger… → The main character seems younger…

In that position, Dutch usually uses the base adjective or comparative without -e:

De man is oud.
De man is ouder dan ik.
De vrouw lijkt blij.
De vrouw lijkt blijer dan gisteren.

Why is it dan and not als in the comparison?

Standard Dutch uses:

… groter / jonger / beter dan … for comparisons of inequality (bigger than, younger than, better than).
… even groot / net zo jong als … for equality (as big as, as young as).

So:

jonger dan in de roman → younger than in the novel ✅
even jong als in de roman → as young as in the novel ✅

You will hear some native speakers say things like groter als, but this is considered non‑standard / incorrect in careful Dutch. For good usage, remember:

comparative + dan
(even / net zo) + adjective + als

What exactly does verfilming mean, and how is it different from film?

Verfilming is a noun meaning film adaptation – a movie that is based on a book, play, etc.

film → a film / movie in general
- Ik heb een leuke film gezien.
verfilming (van een boek) → a film version of a book
- De verfilming van de roman was erg succesvol.

In casual conversation, people often just say de film and het boek:

De hoofdpersoon lijkt in de film jonger dan in het boek.

But verfilming makes it explicit that we’re talking about an adaptation of a specific Roman.

What’s the difference between hoofdpersoon, hoofdrolspeler, and protagonist?

All three relate to “main character”, but they focus on different things:

hoofdpersoon
- literally: main person
- neutral literary term for the central character in a story, book, film, etc.
- used for both written stories and films.
hoofdrolspeler
- literally: main‑role player
- usually refers to the actor who plays the main role in a film, series, or play, not the fictional character itself.
- feminine: hoofdrolspeelster (less used nowadays; hoofdrolspeler is often used for all genders).
protagonist
- a loanword from Greek, via other languages.
- more formal/literary; very close in meaning to English protagonist.
- refers to the central character in a story.

In your sentence, hoofdpersoon is the most natural choice because it talks about the character as it appears in both the novel and the film adaptation.

Why is it de hoofdpersoon and de roman (and not het)?

In Dutch, nouns are either de-words (common gender) or het-words (neuter gender). This is mostly arbitrary and must be memorised.

de hoofdpersoon → de‑word
de roman → de‑word

So you must use de as the definite article:

de hoofdpersoon
de roman

You cannot say het hoofdpersoon or het roman. Those would be incorrect.

Why do we repeat in in dan in de roman? Could we say dan de roman?

Here in is important, because you are comparing how the character appears in two different media:

in de verfilming (in the film adaptation)
in de roman (in the novel)

If you said:

… jonger dan de roman.

it would mean something like younger than the novel (itself) is, which doesn’t really make sense and sounds wrong.

By repeating in, you make clear that you compare:

the character in the film adaptation
with
the same character in the novel

So dan in de roman is necessary for the intended meaning.

Are in de verfilming and in de roman time expressions, place expressions, or something else?

Grammatically they are prepositional phrases with in, and semantically they express the medium / context in which we see the character:

in de verfilming → in the film adaptation (visual medium)
in de roman → in the novel (written medium)

They are not really about physical location or time, but about where / how the character appears to us as a reader / viewer.

In the sentence, both of these phrases modify the idea of how the main character seems:

lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman
= seems (when you look at the film) younger than (when you look at the novel).

Could we replace De hoofdpersoon with a pronoun later, and how would that look?

Yes. Once it’s clear who you are talking about, you can replace de hoofdpersoon with hij (he) or zij (she), depending on the character’s gender.

For example, in a longer text:

De hoofdpersoon lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman. Hij is daar pas begin twintig.
- The main character seems younger in the film than in the novel. There he is only in his early twenties.
De hoofdpersoon lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman. Zij ziet er veel jeugdiger uit.
- The main character seems younger in the film than in the novel. She looks much more youthful.

The structure Hij/Zij lijkt in de verfilming jonger dan in de roman is grammatically the same as with De hoofdpersoon: pronoun (subject) + lijkt (verb in 2nd place) + rest.