Breakdown of Moeten we deze pagina's voor morgen lezen?
lezen
to read
morgen
tomorrow
deze
this / these
voor
to (time), before
moeten
to have to, must
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de pagina
the page
Questions & Answers about Moeten we deze pagina's voor morgen lezen?
Why does pagina's have an apostrophe before the 's'?
Pagina ends in a single, open vowel 'a'. In Dutch, if you just added an 's' to make paginas, the pronunciation rules would make that final 'a' sound short. We use an apostrophe before the 's' for words ending in 'a', 'i', 'o', 'u', or 'y' to keep the vowel sound long.
Why is lezen at the very end of the sentence?
Because of the verb moeten (must / have to). When you use a modal verb like moeten, kunnen (can), or willen (want), it takes the main verb position, and the other verb (lezen) is pushed all the way to the end of the sentence in its full dictionary form.
Pagina is a de-word, which is why we use deze. But what if it were a het-word?
It wouldn't matter here! When a noun is plural (like pagina's), you always use deze (these) or die (those), regardless of whether its singular form is a de-word or a het-word. Dit and dat are only used for singular het-words.
Does voor morgen mean "for tomorrow" or "before tomorrow"?
It can actually mean both, because voor translates to both "for" and "before". Just like in English, saying you have to read these pages "for tomorrow" implies it is a deadline, so both meanings work perfectly in this context.
Learn Moeten we deze pagina's voor morgen lezen and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free