Word
Hij pakt de schroevendraaier om de schroef zelf vast te maken.
Meaning
He grabs the screwdriver to attach the screw himself.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij pakt de schroevendraaier om de schroef zelf vast te maken.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
pakken
to take
zelf
yourself / oneself (emphatic)
te
to (infinitive marker)
Questions & Answers about Hij pakt de schroevendraaier om de schroef zelf vast te maken.
Why is zelf used here instead of alleen?
Zelf emphasizes that he is doing the action personally, rather than having someone else do it. If we used alleen, it would mean he is doing it alone, without anyone else in the room helping him. Here, the focus is on him doing the work himself.
Why is te placed in the middle of vast and maken?
The verb here is vastmaken (to fasten or attach), which is a separable verb. When you use a separable verb in an om ... te (in order to) structure, the word te must go between the separable prefix (vast) and the main verb (maken).
Could zelf be placed somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes, but its placement changes the emphasis. Here, zelf is placed after the object de schroef, which feels natural to say he is fastening the screw himself. If you put it right after Hij, like Hij zelf pakt, it heavily emphasizes that he (and not someone else) is grabbing the screwdriver.
What is the exact function of om ... te in this sentence?
The combination of om and te translates to 'in order to'. It connects the action of grabbing the screwdriver to his purpose: to fasten the screw. The part of the sentence explaining the purpose always gets pushed to the end, with the verb at the very end.