Breakdown of De opa en oma genieten ervan om de baby te verwennen.
en
and
de baby
the baby
de oma
the grandma
de opa
the grandpa
genieten van
to enjoy
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
er
it (in 'er ... op/mee', pronominal adverb)
verwennen
to spoil (a child)
ervan
of it, from it
Questions & Answers about De opa en oma genieten ervan om de baby te verwennen.
Why do we need ervan in this sentence? Can't we just say genieten om?
The verb genieten (to enjoy) requires the fixed preposition van (to enjoy of something). When you want to say you enjoy doing an action (like spoiling a baby), Dutch doesn't let you just drop the van. Instead, it uses ervan ("of it") as a placeholder that points forward to the action in the om ... te clause.
How is ervan formed, and why is it written as one word?
In Dutch, you can't put a preposition like van directly before an om ... te clause, and you also can't say van het to mean "of it". Whenever a preposition is combined with het (it), the het turns into er and attaches to the front of the preposition. So, er + van becomes the single word ervan.
How does the om ... te structure work in this sentence?
The om ... te combination acts like the English "to" when describing an action (to spoil). The word om introduces the new clause, and te must go immediately before the infinitive verb at the very end of the sentence (te verwennen).
Why is it De opa en oma instead of repeating the article like De opa en de oma?
Just like in English ("The grandpa and grandma"), you can often drop the second article in Dutch when you are listing a familiar pair of closely related things or people. Leaving out the second de here sounds perfectly natural.
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