Breakdown of Hij wandelt om het lichaam te ontspannen.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
wandelen
to walk (for pleasure)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
het lichaam
the body
ontspannen
to relax
Questions & Answers about Hij wandelt om het lichaam te ontspannen.
Why are om and te separated by het lichaam?
In a purpose clause (meaning 'in order to'), om starts the phrase and te goes right before the infinitive verb at the very end. Any objects or extra information, like het lichaam, must go between them.
Can I just translate the English 'to' and leave out om, saying 'Hij wandelt het lichaam te ontspannen'?
No, you need both. When you want to express a goal or purpose (why someone is doing something), Dutch requires the full om ... te combination. English often shortens 'in order to' to just 'to', but Dutch doesn't drop om.
Why does it say het lichaam (the body) instead of zijn lichaam (his body)?
You could use zijn lichaam, but Dutch often uses the definite article het (the) or de for body parts when it is already obvious whose body is involved. It sounds very natural in Dutch to speak generally about 'the body' in this context.
Is ontspannen the infinitive verb here?
Yes, ontspannen is the full infinitive meaning 'to relax'. It comes right after te, which always pairs with an infinitive in this structure. (Fun fact: because it starts with the inseparable prefix ont-, its past participle doesn't get a ge-, so the infinitive and past participle look exactly the same!)
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