Breakdown of 's Morgens zal ze de vergadering voorbereiden.
de vergadering
the meeting
zullen
shall / will
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
's morgens
in the morning
voorbereiden
to prepare
Questions & Answers about 's Morgens zal ze de vergadering voorbereiden.
I thought voorbereiden is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up here?
You are right that voorbereiden (to prepare) is a separable verb. When used on its own in a simple sentence, it splits: Ze bereidt de vergadering voor (She prepares the meeting). However, because this sentence uses the future auxiliary verb zal (will), the main verb is pushed to the very end of the sentence as a full infinitive. When a separable verb is pushed to the end by a modal or auxiliary verb, its parts stay glued together as one word.
Why is the word order zal ze instead of ze zal?
Because the sentence starts with the time expression 's Morgens (In the morning). In Dutch, the main conjugated verb (here, zal) must be the second idea in the sentence. Since the time phrase takes up the first spot, the subject (ze) has to swap places with the verb and come right after it. This is called inversion.
What does the 's in 's Morgens stand for?
It is an old abbreviation for des, which meant "of the". The phrase 's morgens literally means "of the morning", but it is used to mean "in the morning". You will see this same pattern in 's middags (in the afternoon) and 's avonds (in the evening). Notice that when one of these expressions starts a sentence, the letter after the apostrophe gets capitalized, not the s itself!
In English we usually say "prepare FOR the meeting". Why is there no word for "for" in the Dutch sentence?
The Dutch verb voorbereiden already carries the full meaning of "preparing for" or "setting up" something. You simply follow it directly with the thing being prepared, which in this case is de vergadering (the meeting). You do not need to add an extra preposition to match the English "for".
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