Word
's Avonds wil ik uitrusten en nadenken.
Meaning
In the evening, I want to rest and think.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about 's Avonds wil ik uitrusten en nadenken.
Why are uitrusten and nadenken written as single words here? Aren't they separable verbs?
Yes, they are! Normally, separable verbs split up. But because we are using the modal verb wil (want), the action verbs are pushed to the very end of the sentence as full infinitives (the basic dictionary form). Whenever a separable verb is an infinitive, its prefix stays glued to the front of the word.
Why does the sentence say wil ik instead of ik wil?
This happens because of a rule called inversion. In Dutch, the main conjugated verb must sit in the second position of a normal sentence. Because we started this sentence with the time phrase 's Avonds, the verb wil has to take the second spot, which pushes the subject ik into the third spot.
Why is there an apostrophe in 's Avonds, and why is the A capitalized instead of the s?
The 's is a leftover abbreviation for an old Dutch word des (meaning "of the"). When a sentence starts with an apostrophe like this, Dutch spelling rules say we do not capitalize the s. Instead, we capitalize the first letter of the next full word, which is the A in Avonds.
Do both action verbs (uitrusten and nadenken) have to go at the very end of the sentence?