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Help with a Dutch sentence | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Stefany93 Newbie dyulgerova.infoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4415 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 4 27 April 2014 at 9:00pm | IP Logged |
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Hello colleagues,
In my Dutch textbook, I found the following sentence where Petra says - ik heb een paar nieuwe schoenen nodig which is translated as a - "I need a pair of new shoes" but why Petra says the word "heb" which means "have" ? Like literally the sentence means " I have a pair of new shoes necessary" Doesn't make sense, but why she used the word " heb " ? Wouldn't it be better she to have said " Ik nodig een paar niewe schonen " ? Also, does " nodig " means " need " or " necessary as the dictionary translates it ? Thank you very much! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 2 of 4 27 April 2014 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
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"Nodig" is an adjective meaning "necessary". In order to give it the meaning "to need" you have to combine it with "hebben". So, "nodig hebben" is an idiom which translates into English as "to need". It's just the way Dutch works. You can't always translate word by word from one language to another.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 4 27 April 2014 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
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Wht do you say it doesn't make sense? It is a very common construction used in lots of languages, and the logic is that you have something (the object) in a certain state (the object predicative). Actually that's probably how the compound perfect ("have done" etc.) arose long ago, and it is the same construction you use for instance in "to have something in mind". Or with another verb: "to keep something safe". English is just not the most dedicated user of these constructions. And as Josquin writes, you can't just expect other languages to use the same constructions as English in each and every case. Edited by Iversen on 27 April 2014 at 11:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 4 28 April 2014 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
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Nodig is indeed an adjective.
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