Breakdown of Wij gebruiken een schone kwast om samen te behangen.
een
a/an
wij
we
samen
together
gebruiken
to use
schoon
clean
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
behangen
to wallpaper
de kwast
the paintbrush
Questions & Answers about Wij gebruiken een schone kwast om samen te behangen.
The current lesson is about zelf and alleen. How would we change this sentence to say we are wallpapering ourselves or alone?
You would simply replace samen (together). To say you are doing it yourselves without hiring a professional, use zelf: ...om zelf te behangen. To say you are doing it alone without anyone else, use alleen: ...om alleen te behangen.
Why do we need the word om here? Can't we just say samen te behangen?
The combination of om + other words + te + an infinitive verb expresses a specific purpose or goal, exactly like in order to in English. While English often shortens this to just to wallpaper, Dutch requires the full om ... te structure to explain why you are using the clean brush.
Why does the adjective schoon (clean) change to schone and lose an o?
Because kwast (brush) is a de-word (de kwast). Adjectives before de-words always get an -e added to the end. When you add this -e, the Dutch spelling rules kick in: you drop one o so that the syllable remains open and the long o sound is preserved, turning schoon into schone.
Can I put samen earlier in the sentence, like Wij gebruiken samen een schone kwast...?
Yes, you can, but it changes the emphasis slightly. Placing it earlier translates to We together use a clean brush, which sounds like you are literally sharing the action of holding or using the brush. Keeping it inside the om ... te phrase correctly emphasizes that the wallpapering itself is the shared activity.
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