Word Order for Emphasis
Word Order for Emphasis
Because Dutch fixes its verb in second position, it cannot emphasize by rearranging the way English does. Instead it fronts one element, builds clefts with wat, and deploys a set of emphatic particles that English handles with stress alone.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Fronting any single element makes it the topic
Dat boek heb ik al gelezen. Naar Amsterdam ga ik nooit meer.
That book I've already read. To Amsterdam I'm never going again.
Moving an object or a prepositional phrase to first position is the standard Dutch way of marking what the sentence is about, and it forces the usual inversion. English can do this ('that book I've read') but it sounds markedly literary; in Dutch it is completely neutral and extremely common. Only one element may be fronted, which is why the choice carries weight.
Clefts with wat ... is dat
Wat me opvalt, is dat niemand iets zegt.
What strikes me is that nobody says anything.
To spotlight a whole proposition, Dutch uses a wat-clause as the subject and then is dat: Wat me stoort, is dat ... . Note the comma and the double structure — the wat-clause is verb-final, and the dat-clause that follows is verb-final too, so the sentence has two clause-final verbs. English builds the same cleft, making this one of the more transferable devices at this level.
wel degelijk, juist and toch as emphatic markers
Het werkt wel degelijk. Dat is nu juist het probleem.
It really does work. That's precisely the problem.
wel degelijk contradicts a denial — 'it does too work' — with a force English can only get from stressed 'does'. juist and nu juist mean 'precisely, exactly that one', pinpointing an element. zeker wel and echt wel are the spoken equivalents. Because Dutch stress patterns are less flexible than English ones, these particles are not decoration: they are how emphasis is actually encoded.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- really / most certainly
- English
- precisely
- English
- precisely that
- English
- to strike / be noticeable
- English
- above all
- English
- in particular
- English
- even
- English
- not at all
- English
- even (the slightest)
- English
- of all things / precisely
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