Shawn
Community Tutor
How do you nominalize a verb phrase in Dutch? For instance, how do you say sentences like the following: 1. Buying her flowers makes me so happy. 2. Taking that bus instead of the other one is so much more convenient. 3. Studying at least an hour a day is very beneficial. 4. Playing with snakes can be very dangerous.
Oct 27, 2014 5:35 AM
Answers · 3
1
When I started translating the first sentence literally, I found the result to look somewhat unnatural to my eyes. This might be because the practice of normalizing verbs is less common in Dutch than in English. I'm not sure about that. It might be that the longer the sentence, the sooner we switch to a different construction. I added the alternative phrasing below the literal translation. Note that I believe "om" is technically optional, but I think it sounds better with than without. Other native speakers might think differently. 1. Bloemen voor haar kopen maakt me gelukkig. Het maakt me zo blij om bloemen voor haar te kopen. 2. Die ene bus nemen in plaats van die andere is zoveel makkelijker. Het is zoveel makkelijker om die ene bus te nemen in plaats van die andere. 3. Ten minste één uur per dag oefenen is zeer gunstig. Het is zeer gunstig om ten minste één uur per dag te oefenen. 4. Met slangen spelen is gevaarlijk. Het is gevaarlijk om met slangen te spelen.
October 27, 2014
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