Breakdown of Vandaag wordt het staal gesmolten.
vandaag
today
worden
to become
het staal
the steel
smelten
to melt
Questions & Answers about Vandaag wordt het staal gesmolten.
Why does the Dutch sentence use wordt when the English translation says "is"?
In English, "is melted" can mean the action is happening right now, or that it's already a finished state. In Dutch, the present passive voice (focusing on an action being done to the subject right now) always uses a form of worden. If you used the verb zijn and said Vandaag is het staal gesmolten, it would mean the melting process is already finished.
Why does it say wordt het staal instead of het staal wordt?
The sentence starts with the time word Vandaag (Today). Whenever you put something other than the subject in the first position of a main clause, Dutch uses inversion: the conjugated verb must come second, and the subject is pushed to the third position.
Why is gesmolten placed at the very end of the sentence?
In a Dutch sentence with an auxiliary verb and a main verb, the conjugated auxiliary (here, wordt) takes the second position, but the other verb (the past participle gesmolten) is pushed to the very end of the clause.
How is the past participle gesmolten formed?
It comes from the verb smelten (to melt). This is a strong (irregular) verb, so instead of following the standard rules to get a -t or -d ending, it changes its middle vowel from 'e' to 'o' and gets an -en ending.