Breakdown of We zullen het diploma binnenkort ontvangen.
binnenkort
soon (in the near future)
zullen
shall / will
ontvangen
to receive
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
het diploma
the diploma
Questions & Answers about We zullen het diploma binnenkort ontvangen.
Why is ontvangen at the very end of the sentence?
When you use zullen (will) to make the future tense, it takes the main verb position (second place in the sentence). The actual action verb (ontvangen) gets pushed all the way to the end in its full infinitive form.
Why do we use zullen here instead of zal?
The verb must match the subject. Because the subject is the plural we, we use the plural form zullen. If the sentence were about one person, like ik (I) or hij (he), you would use the singular form zal.
I learned that time words usually come right after the verb. Why is het diploma placed before binnenkort here?
That is a great catch! While time words do usually come early in a Dutch sentence, a specific definite object (a noun with de, het, or a word like mijn) often comes before the time word. Because it is het diploma (the diploma, meaning it is specific), it sounds very natural to place it before binnenkort.
What does the word binnenkort literally mean?
It translates to 'soon,' but it is a combination of binnen (within) and kort (short). You can easily remember it by thinking of it as 'within a short time.'
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