Word
Ik lees een boek om te ontspannen.
Meaning
I am reading a book to relax.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Ik lees een boek om te ontspannen.
Why do we need both om and te just to say "to relax"?
Together, om ... te mean "in order to". In Dutch, when expressing the purpose of an action (why you are reading the book), you use om at the beginning of the clause and te right before the full verb (ontspannen).
Why are om and te right next to each other in this sentence?
Normally, extra information (like objects or time words) goes between om and te. Because this specific purpose clause has no extra words—just the verb itself—the two words end up sitting right next to each other.
Could I just say Ik lees een boek te ontspannen without om?
No, leaving out om is incorrect here. When expressing a goal or purpose, the full combination om ... te is always required.
Why is there no me (myself) with ontspannen?
You might have learned earlier that "to relax" is a reflexive verb (zich ontspannen). While you could say om me te ontspannen (in order to relax myself), it is perfectly fine and very common to drop the reflexive pronoun and just use ontspannen on its own, exactly like in English.