Breakdown of Ik probeer de charmante man met wie ik date te begrijpen.
ik
I
de man
the man
met
with
begrijpen
to understand
wie
who
proberen
to try
te
to (infinitive marker)
daten
to date
charmant
charming
Questions & Answers about Ik probeer de charmante man met wie ik date te begrijpen.
Why does the sentence use met wie instead of just die for "whom"?
In Dutch, the verb daten (to date) is used with the preposition met (daten met iemand means to date someone). When a relative clause refers to a person and uses a preposition, you must use the preposition followed by wie. So, "the man I am dating" literally translates to "the man with whom I date" (de man met wie ik date).
In English I can say "the man I am dating" without "who" or "whom". Can I drop met wie in Dutch?
No, Dutch never drops the relative pronoun (the word that connects the clauses). While English often leaves out words like "who", "whom", or "that", you must always include them in Dutch. You have to say de man met wie ik date.
Why is te begrijpen all the way at the end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the structure proberen te (to try to). In Dutch, when you have a conjugated main verb (probeer) and a te + infinitive verb (te begrijpen), the rest of the information gets sandwiched between them. The entire phrase de charmante man met wie ik date is the object, so it pushes te begrijpen to the very end.
Is date just the English word?
Yes, daten is a common English loanword in Dutch. It is conjugated like a regular Dutch verb, so the ik form is simply the stem: ik date. Because it sits inside a relative clause, this verb goes to the end of that specific clause.
Why does the adjective have an extra "-e" (charmante)?
Because man is a de-word (de man). Whenever an adjective comes right before a noun that has a definite article (de or het), the adjective almost always gets an extra -e at the end.
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