Questions & Answers about Ik kon de stage niet afmaken.
How do we know kon means "could" and not "can"?
Kon is the simple past tense of the modal verb kunnen (to be able to / can). Because the subject is ik (I), we use the singular form kon. If it were the present tense ("can"), the sentence would use kan.
Why is afmaken at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you use a conjugated modal verb like kon in the second position of a main clause, the primary action verb (afmaken) is pushed to the very end of the sentence in its full infinitive form.
Since afmaken is a separable verb, why isn't it split into maak... af here?
You only split a separable verb when it acts as the conjugated verb in the sentence (for example: Ik maak de stage af). Because the modal verb kon is the conjugated verb here, afmaken stays whole at the end of the sentence.
Why does niet go after de stage but before afmaken?
The word niet (not) generally comes after a specific direct object like de stage. However, it must always come before any verbs that are pushed to the end of the sentence, placing it right before afmaken here.