Breakdown of Hij vergeet de stoelen voor het evenement klaar te zetten.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
de stoel
the chair
vergeten
to forget
voor
for (on behalf of)
Questions & Answers about Hij vergeet de stoelen voor het evenement klaar te zetten.
Why is it written as three separate words: klaar te zetten?
The verb here is klaarzetten (to set up / to get ready), which is a separable verb. When you use a separable verb with te, the word te goes right between the separable prefix (klaar) and the verb (zetten), and they are written as three separate words.
The lesson is about om ... te clauses. Could we use om in this sentence?
Yes, you could! With the verb vergeten (to forget), using om is optional but very common. If you include it, om goes right after the main verb: Hij vergeet om de stoelen voor het evenement klaar te zetten.
Why does klaar te zetten go all the way at the end of the sentence?
In a te clause, all the extra information—like the object (de stoelen) and the prepositional phrase (voor het evenement)—must come before the infinitive verbs. The verbs themselves are pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Doesn't klaar usually mean "ready"?
Yes, it does! The separable verb klaarzetten literally means "to set ready" or "to put ready". In English, we usually translate this action as "setting up" or "getting [things] ready".