Breakdown of Het spookhuis is te eng om alleen te bezoeken.
zijn
to be
te
too
bezoeken
to visit
alleen
alone; only
eng
scary / creepy
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
het spookhuis
the haunted house
Questions & Answers about Het spookhuis is te eng om alleen te bezoeken.
Why do we need the word om in this sentence?
This sentence uses the te ... om te ... (too ... to ...) structure. When you want to say something is too scary to do a certain action, Dutch uses om to connect the adjective to that action. The pattern is te + [adjective] + om + [other words] + te + [infinitive verb].
Why does te bezoeken go at the very end?
In an om ... te ... phrase, the final te and the infinitive verb (bezoeken) must be placed at the very end of the sentence. Any extra details, like the word alleen (alone), get squeezed between om and the final te.
I thought alleen meant 'only'. Can it mean 'alone' as well?
Yes! The word alleen translates to both 'alone' and 'only' depending on the context. Here, it clearly means 'alone'. If you ever want to emphasize 'only' and avoid confusion, you can use the phrase alleen maar instead.
Why is it het spookhuis and not de spookhuis?
Spookhuis (haunted house) is a compound noun made from spook (ghost) and huis (house). In Dutch, the article for a compound word always matches its final part. Because it is het huis, the combined word is het spookhuis.
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