Grammatica - loco

8
Pronouns
104
When waar and its preposition are separated, which is particularly
commonly done in speech, the preposition is placed at the end of the
clause (see second example), but before any verb that is already
standing there (see third example)
Wat heb je gedaan?
What have you done?
Waarmee schil je de aardappels?/Waar schil je de aardappels
mee?
What are you peeling the potatoes with?
Waarmee heb je het gedaan?/Waar heb je het mee gedaan?
What did you do it with?
(b) ‘What kind/sort of a’ is rendered by the phrase wat voor (een)
where, once again, two word orders are possible:
Wat voor (een) auto heb je?/Wat heb je voor (een) auto?
What sort of car do you have?
(c) Wat is common in exclamations:
Wat jammer! What a pity/shame!
Wat een mooi huis! What a beautiful house!
Note: Wat een dure boeken! What expensive books! (see 5.1.2)
(d) Sometimes English ‘what’ is rendered by hoe in Dutch (see 10.5.1):
Hoe laat is het? What time is it?
Hoe is uw naam?/Hoe heet u? What is your name?
(e) Sometimes English ‘what’ means ‘which’ (see 8.7.4 below).
8.7.4
‘Which’
Dutch welk(e) can be used attributively before nouns or independently.
English often uses ‘what’ 20 in this sense too:
20 The subtle distinction here between ‘which’ and ‘what’ in English cannot be expressed
in Dutch, but it often eludes English-speaking people too, i.e. ‘Which film are you going
to see?’ (which one of the three we have just been talking about?), ‘What film are you
going to see?’ (of all those that are showing). In both cases Dutch can only use welk(e).