Word
Je hoeft niet zelf te koken, want we eten in het restaurant.
Meaning
You don't have to cook yourself, because we are eating in the restaurant.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Je hoeft niet zelf te koken, want we eten in het restaurant.
niet
not
eten
to eat
in
in
koken
to cook
Questions & Answers about Je hoeft niet zelf te koken, want we eten in het restaurant.
Why do we use hoeft niet te koken instead of moet niet koken to say 'don't have to cook'?
In Dutch, moeten means 'must', but moeten niet means 'must not' (a strict rule against doing something). To say that you 'don't have to' do something, you use the verb hoeven combined with niet te and the infinitive verb.
Why is there a te right before koken?
The verb hoeven is always followed by te and an infinitive verb. You can think of it just like the English 'to' in 'don't have to cook'. Here, te koken completes the meaning of hoeft niet.
What does zelf mean in this sentence?
The word zelf means 'self'. Because the subject is je (you), it translates to 'yourself' here. It emphasizes that you personally do not have to be the one who cooks.
After want (because), why is the word order we eten instead of putting the verb at the end?
The word want is a special linking word that does not change the word order of the sentence that follows it. If you used the other word for because, omdat, the verb would be pushed to the end: omdat we in het restaurant eten.