Breakdown of Wij gaan veel geld sparen voor de vakantie.
wij
we
veel
much / many / a lot of
het geld
the money
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
de vakantie
the holiday
voor
for (on behalf of)
sparen
to save
Questions & Answers about Wij gaan veel geld sparen voor de vakantie.
How is the future tense built here using gaan?
We use the conjugated verb gaan (are going) in the second position of the sentence, and push the main verb sparen (to save) towards the end. This is very similar to the English 'going to' structure.
Shouldn't the infinitive sparen go at the very end of the sentence?
Usually, yes! The infinitive verb normally goes at the very end of a Dutch sentence. However, phrases that start with a preposition (like voor de vakantie) are an exception. They are allowed to be placed after the infinitive. Saying Wij gaan veel geld voor de vakantie sparen is also completely correct and sounds very natural.
Does sparen translate to all meanings of the English word 'save'?
No, sparen specifically means to save up money or to collect things over time. If you want to say 'save a life' from danger, you would use redden, and to 'save a file' on a computer, you use opslaan.
Why is it veel geld and not vele geld?
Geld (money) is an uncountable noun. We only add an -e to make vele when we are talking about plural, countable things, like vele mensen (many people). For uncountable things, you always use veel.
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