Breakdown of De student zal morgen het diploma krijgen.
de student
the student
morgen
tomorrow
zullen
shall / will
krijgen
to get (receive)
Questions & Answers about De student zal morgen het diploma krijgen.
Why are zal and krijgen separated in this sentence?
This sentence uses the future tense with the helping verb zullen (here conjugated as zal). In Dutch, the helping verb takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb in its full dictionary form (krijgen) is pushed all the way to the very end.
Why does morgen come before het diploma? In English, 'tomorrow' usually goes at the end.
Dutch places a high priority on time. Words that tell us when something happens, like morgen, generally come right after the conjugated verb. This follows the common Dutch word order rule where Time comes before other details like the direct object.
Do I always have to use zal to talk about the future?
Actually, no! Because the sentence already includes the time word morgen, it is perfectly clear that this happens in the future. In everyday Dutch, you can just use the present tense: De student krijgt morgen het diploma. Both are correct, but the present tense is very common in speech.
I sometimes see halen used for 'to get'. Why is it krijgen here?
The Dutch word krijgen specifically means 'to receive' or 'to be given' something. Halen means 'to fetch' or 'to go pick up'. Since a diploma is usually formally awarded or handed to the student, krijgen is the natural choice to mean they will receive it.