Breakdown of We moeten hen morgen bezoeken.
morgen
tomorrow
bezoeken
to visit
moeten
to have to, must
hen
them (object)
Questions & Answers about We moeten hen morgen bezoeken.
Why is 'them' translated as hen here, and could I use ze instead?
Yes, you can absolutely use ze. In Dutch, hen is the strong or stressed form of 'them' used for people when they are the direct object. ze is the unstressed form and is used much more often in everyday spoken Dutch.
I've also seen hun used for 'them'. Why is it hen in this sentence?
In formal Dutch grammar, hen is used for direct objects (like the people being visited here) and after prepositions. hun is used for indirect objects (like when you give a book 'to them'). But don't worry too much about getting it perfect: many Dutch people mix these up, and you can always just use ze to be safe!
Why is the verb bezoeken (visit) at the very end of the sentence?
This happens because of the verb moeten (must). In Dutch, when you use a helper verb like moeten, it takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb (bezoeken) gets pushed all the way to the end. This is a very common sentence structure.
Why does morgen (tomorrow) come after hen? Don't time words usually come early?