Breakdown of Het is saai om de proef vaak te herhalen.
zijn
to be
vaak
often
het
it
saai
boring
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
de proef
the experiment
herhalen
to repeat
Questions & Answers about Het is saai om de proef vaak te herhalen.
Why do we use om ... te in this sentence?
The sentence starts with the dummy subject het (it) to state an opinion: Het is saai (It is boring). To explain exactly what action is boring, we use an om ... te clause. The word om introduces the action, and te sits right before the infinitive verb (herhalen).
Why is the word order om de proef vaak te herhalen?
In an om ... te clause, all the details—like the object (de proef) and adverbs (vaak)—must be sandwiched between om and the verb. The te + infinitive verb (te herhalen) always gets pushed to the very end of the phrase.
Why does de proef come before the word vaak?
Even inside the om ... te sandwich, normal Dutch word order rules still apply. A specific direct object (like de proef, meaning the experiment) almost always comes before an adverb of time or frequency (like vaak, meaning often).
Since herhalen looks like it has two parts (her + halen), shouldn't the te go in the middle?
No, because herhalen (to repeat) is an inseparable verb. In Dutch, the prefix her- is never separated from the rest of the verb. If it were a separable verb (like schoonmaken), the te would squeeze in the middle (schoon te maken), but for inseparable verbs, it just sits in front: te herhalen.
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