Breakdown of Wanneer gaan we de baby's bezoeken?
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
bezoeken
to visit
wanneer
when
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about Wanneer gaan we de baby's bezoeken?
Why does baby's get an apostrophe-s instead of just adding -s like in English?
In Dutch, nouns that end in a single open vowel letter (like a, i, o, u, or y) get an apostrophe-s in the plural. This is done to keep the vowel sound clear. If we just wrote babys, it would look confusing under Dutch spelling rules, so the apostrophe keeps the original sound and spelling of the word intact.
Why is bezoeken at the very end of the sentence?
When a Dutch sentence has two verbs, the first verb (gaan) is conjugated and takes the second position, while the other verb (bezoeken) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence as a full infinitive (the dictionary form).
Why is the order gaan we instead of we gaan?
Because this is a question starting with a question word (Wanneer). In Dutch, the conjugated verb almost always takes the second position. Since Wanneer is in spot one, the verb gaan takes spot two, forcing the subject (we) to move right behind it. This swapping is called inversion.
Does gaan work exactly like "going to" in English here?
Yes! You can use gaan (to go) along with another verb at the end of the sentence (like bezoeken) to talk about the future or something you plan to do, just like saying "are going to visit" in English.