Breakdown of Na de lekkage controleerde ik de meterkast.
Questions & Answers about Na de lekkage controleerde ik de meterkast.
Dutch often puts a time phrase first for emphasis or for natural flow. Na de lekkage means after the leak, so the sentence is setting the time frame first.
When a phrase other than the subject comes first in a Dutch main clause, the finite verb still has to stay in second position. That is why you get:
Na de lekkage controleerde ik de meterkast.
and not:
Na de lekkage ik controleerde de meterkast.
This is a very common Dutch word order pattern.
This is because Dutch is a verb-second language in main clauses.
The first slot in the sentence is taken by Na de lekkage. Since the finite verb must come second, controleerde comes next, and the subject ik comes after it.
So the pattern is:
[time phrase] + [finite verb] + [subject] + rest
Example:
- Na de lekkage controleerde ik de meterkast.
- Gisteren zag ik hem.
- Thuis eet zij altijd vroeg.
If the sentence started with the subject, then you would have:
Ik controleerde de meterkast na de lekkage.
That is also grammatical, but the emphasis is slightly different.