Grammatica - loco

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12.2.1.9
Alsof ‘as if’
Very often the als is dropped and of maintains the full meaning of ‘as if’:
Hij deed of hij er niets van wist.
He pretended he didn’t know anything about it.
Somewhat less common is just als meaning alsof but in this case als acts
as an adverbial conjunction (see 12.3). The option of this alternative
construction is not always at your disposal; it seems to be most common
when the verb that follows is a form of hebben or zijn:
De kamer zag eruit als was er een olifant door gelopen
The room looked as if an elephant had gone through it.
Of as a subordinating conjunction can mean:
(a) ‘whether’ (and note that ‘or whether’ is of dat to avoid a double of):
Ik wist niet of hij thuis was.
I didn’t know if he was at home.
Of ze zal slagen, is nog de vraag.
Whether she’ll pass is the question.
Hij wist niet meer of hij dat werkelijk had meegemaakt of dat
hij het gedroomd had.
He didn’t know any more whether he had really experienced that or
whether he had dreamt it.
(b) ‘as if’, in which case it replaces alsof (see above):
Of is often used superfluously after interrogative adverbs and
pronouns in indirect questions (see 12.6) in much the same way as
dat is sometimes used (see 12.2.1.1, 12.6). This practice should not
be copied:
Ik weet niet wat of ze kan doen.
I don’t know what she can do.
Note the following example which contains both a superfluous of
and dat:
Ik weet niet wie of dat er zal komen.
I don’t know who’ll be coming.
For further uses of of as a coordinating conjunction see 12.1.1.3.
Subordinating
conjunctions
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