Learn Hardcore Dutch: De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands. - The teacher speaks inspiringly about the subject Dutch.

leraar (fem. lerares)
- Very common word for a teacher, especially in primary and secondary school.
- Example: Mijn leraar Engels is streng. – My English teacher is strict.
docent (fem. docente, though docent is also used for women)
- Often used for teachers at secondary school and especially at colleges and universities.
- Sounds a bit more formal or tied to a specific course/subject.
- Example: De docent Nederlands aan de universiteit is erg bekend.

In many contexts they overlap, and saying leraar Nederlands instead of docent Nederlands is still understandable.

Why is the verb spreekt and not spreek here?

Because the subject is de docent (third person singular: he/she/it).

Present tense of spreken (to speak):

ik spreek – I speak
jij/u spreekt – you speak
hij/zij/het spreekt – he/she/it speaks
wij spreken – we speak
jullie spreken – you (plural) speak
zij spreken – they speak

In the sentence, de docent = hij/zij, so you must use spreekt.

What is the difference between spreken and praten?

Both can translate as to speak / to talk, but:

spreken
- Slightly more formal.
- Used for languages: Ik spreek Nederlands.
- Used for giving a talk / lecture / speech: Hij spreekt voor een groot publiek.
praten
- More informal, like to chat / to talk.
- Example: We praten over de film.

In this sentence, De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands, spreekt fits well because it sounds a bit more formal and lecture-like.

You could say De docent praat inspirerend over het vak Nederlands, and it would still be correct, just a bit more casual.

What kind of word is inspirerend, and why does it look like that?

Inspirerend is a present participle from the verb inspireren (to inspire) and it functions here as an adverb describing how the teacher speaks.

As an adjective (before a noun), it takes -e:
- een inspirerende docent – an inspiring teacher
As an adverb (describing a verb), it usually appears as:
- Hij spreekt inspirerend. – He speaks in an inspiring way.

So in De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands, inspirerend tells you how the teacher speaks.

Could I move inspirerend to the end of the sentence, like: De docent spreekt over het vak Nederlands inspirerend?

That word order is grammatically possible, but it sounds unnatural in normal speech.

Neutral, natural word order is:

De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.
(subject – verb – manner adverb – prepositional phrase)

Putting inspirerend at the very end:

De docent spreekt over het vak Nederlands inspirerend.

sounds awkward and overly marked, as if you’re strongly emphasising inspirerend in a strange way. For everyday Dutch, keep inspirerend close to the verb: spreekt inspirerend over …

Why is the preposition over used here? Could we use something else?

In Dutch, when you talk about the topic of speaking or talking, you typically use:

spreken over + iets – to speak about something
praten over + iets – to talk about something

So:

De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.
= The teacher speaks inspiringly about the subject Dutch.

Using van here (spreken van het vak Nederlands) would be wrong in this meaning. Van is used more for of / from, not for about in this sense.

So for “speak about X”, think spreken over X.

What exactly does het vak Nederlands mean, and why not just Nederlands?

vak = school subject (course)
het vak Nederlands = the school subject Dutch (as you study it in school)

So:

Nederlands alone can mean:
- the Dutch language in general (Ik spreek Nederlands.)
- or, in a school context, the subject, from context.

But het vak Nederlands makes it very clear you’re talking about the subject Dutch, not just the language in general.

Both sentences are possible:

De docent spreekt inspirerend over Nederlands.
De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.

The second one explicitly highlights it as a school subject.

Why is it het vak and not de vak?

Like docent, vak has a fixed grammatical gender, but in this case it’s neuter:

het vak = the subject
een vak = a subject

So:

de docent (common gender)
het vak (neuter)

You have to learn the article with the noun; there’s no reliable rule that lets you guess de or het correctly for all nouns.

Why is Nederlands capitalised?

In Dutch, names of languages (and many words derived from country names) are capitalised:

Nederlands, Engels, Duits, Frans, etc.

So:

Ik spreek Nederlands.
Het vak Nederlands is verplicht.

Other school subjects that are not language names are usually lowercase:

geschiedenis (history)
wiskunde (maths)
biologie (biology)

In het vak Nederlands, Nederlands is the name of the language/subject, so it gets a capital letter.

How would the sentence change in the plural, with several teachers?

You change the subject and the verb form:

Singular: De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.
– The teacher speaks inspiringly about the subject Dutch.
Plural: De docenten spreken inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.
– The teachers speak inspiringly about the subject Dutch.

Changes:

de docent → de docenten (plural noun)
spreekt → spreken (plural verb)

The rest stays the same.

What is the difference between spreekt inspirerend Nederlands and spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands?

They say different things:

De docent spreekt inspirerend Nederlands.
- Means the teacher speaks Dutch in an inspiring way.
- Here Nederlands is the language being spoken (like English, French).
De docent spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands.
- Means the teacher talks in an inspiring way about the subject Dutch.
- Focus is on the topic (the subject) rather than the language they are using.

So:

spreekt inspirerend Nederlands → how they use the language.
spreekt inspirerend over het vak Nederlands → what topic they speak about.