Questions & Answers about Wij zwemmen om ons lichaam te trainen.
How does the om ... te structure work in this sentence?
The phrase om ... te trainen translates to "in order to train". When you want to state the purpose of an action, you start the clause with om and put te plus the full verb (the infinitive) at the very end.
Why does ons lichaam go in the middle of the om ... te part?
In an om ... te clause, the verb always gets pushed to the end. That means any objects, like ons lichaam (our body), must be sandwiched between om and te trainen.
Why do we use ons for "our" instead of onze?
The word for body, lichaam, is a het word (het lichaam). In Dutch, you must use ons for singular het words. You use onze for de words and all plural words (like onze lichamen for "our bodies").
Could I just say Wij zwemmen te trainen ons lichaam like in English?
No, Dutch word order is different. You cannot translate "to train our body" word-for-word. You must use the om ... te structure, which forms a bracket around the rest of the words: om + object + te + verb.