Breakdown of Ik drink alleen water om af te vallen.
ik
I
drinken
to drink
het water
the water
alleen
alone; only
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
afvallen
to lose weight
Questions & Answers about Ik drink alleen water om af te vallen.
The English translation just says "to lose weight". Why do we need om in the Dutch sentence?
In Dutch, when you want to show the purpose of an action (meaning "in order to"), you use the structure om ... te plus the infinitive (the full verb). You can't just use te by itself here; you need the full om ... te combination to express your goal.
Why is the word te stuck right in the middle of afvallen, making it af te vallen?
Afvallen (to lose weight) is a separable verb, made up of the prefix af and the verb vallen. Whenever a separable verb is used with te, the te squeezes right between those two parts. That is why it becomes af te vallen instead of te afvallen.
Doesn't the word alleen usually mean "alone"?
Yes, alleen can mean "alone", but it is also the most common Dutch word for "only" or "just". Here, the context makes it clear: you aren't drinking water by yourself, you are only drinking water.
Could I switch the sentence around and start with the purpose: Om af te vallen...?
Yes, you can! But remember the golden rule of Dutch word order: the main verb must be in the second position. The whole om-phrase counts as position one, so the verb drink must come right after it: Om af te vallen drink ik alleen water.
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