Breakdown of Je hoeft de machine niet uit te zetten voordat je weggaat.
niet
not
weggaan
to leave / to go away (casual, from a place)
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
voordat
before
de machine
the machine
uitzetten
to turn off (devices, machines)
hoeven te
to need to (mostly negated)
Questions & Answers about Je hoeft de machine niet uit te zetten voordat je weggaat.
Why does the sentence end with the verb weggaat?
The word voordat (before) is a subordinating conjunction, which introduces a subclause (a dependent part of the sentence). In a Dutch subclause, the working verb is always pushed to the very end. That is why weggaat comes after the subject je.
Weggaan (to leave) is a separable verb. Why isn't it separated into gaat weg here?
In a normal main clause, a separable verb splits (for example: je gaat weg). However, because voordat pushes the verb to the end of the clause, both parts of the verb end up together at the end. When this happens, they reunite and are written as a single word: voordat je weggaat.
Why use hoeft ... niet instead of moet ... niet to say "do not have to"?
In Dutch, moeten means "must", but moet niet means "must not" (a strict rule not to do something). To express that you "don't have to" or "don't need to" do something, you use the verb hoeven. It is almost always paired with a negative word like niet or geen, and it requires the word te before the action verb.
Why is te placed right in the middle of uitzetten (uit te zetten)?
Uitzetten (to turn off) is a separable verb made of the prefix uit and the verb zetten. When a sentence requires te before a separable verb (like here, because of hoeft), the te squeezes right between the prefix and the verb. It is then written as three separate words.
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