Breakdown of We gaan de uitdaging allemaal aanpakken.
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de uitdaging
the challenge
allemaal
all (of them)
aanpakken
to tackle / to approach
Questions & Answers about We gaan de uitdaging allemaal aanpakken.
Why does allemaal come after de uitdaging instead of right after We?
In Dutch, allemaal cannot sit directly next to the subject pronoun it refers to. You can't say We allemaal gaan... (We all go...). Instead, allemaal usually goes later in the sentence, typically after the direct object (de uitdaging) and right before the verbs at the end of the sentence (aanpakken).
Could I use alle instead of allemaal here?
No, because they have different grammatical jobs. Alle is an adjective that must be placed directly in front of a noun (like alle uitdagingen, meaning 'all challenges'). Allemaal works as an adverb that floats separately in the sentence to refer back to a pronoun—in this case, We.
Aanpakken is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up into pakken... aan here?
Because the sentence uses the auxiliary (helper) verb gaan. When an auxiliary verb takes the second position in the sentence, it pushes the main verb to the very end in its full, undivided infinitive form. If you removed gaan, it would separate: We pakken de uitdaging allemaal aan.
Can aanpakken be used for physical objects, or just abstract things like challenges?
Both! Literally, it means to physically take or receive something being handed to you. Figuratively, just like in English, you use it with abstract things like de uitdaging (the challenge) or een probleem (a problem) to mean 'tackling' or 'addressing' it.
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