Breakdown of Het is gebruikelijk om buiten te wachten totdat de vergadering begint.
zijn
to be
buiten
outside
beginnen
to begin
wachten
to wait
het
it
de vergadering
the meeting
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
totdat
until (conjunction)
gebruikelijk
customary / usual
Questions & Answers about Het is gebruikelijk om buiten te wachten totdat de vergadering begint.
How could I rewrite this sentence to use the pronoun men, since it is the focus of this lesson?
You could say Het is gebruikelijk dat men buiten wacht totdat... (It is customary that one waits outside until...). The original sentence avoids mentioning a subject by using the om ... te structure. Using men (one/people) gives it a formal tone, which fits well with the context of a vergadering (meeting).
Why do we need om before buiten te wachten?
The om ... te + infinitive structure translates to "to wait outside". When a sentence starts with a "dummy" subject and an adjective, like Het is gebruikelijk (It is customary), you almost always use om ... te to introduce the actual action being described.
Could I just use tot instead of totdat?
Yes, you can. When connecting two clauses to mean "until", tot and totdat are interchangeable. However, totdat is specifically used to introduce a subclause, whereas tot is also a preposition used with nouns (as in tot straks - until later).
Why does the verb begint go at the very end of the sentence?
The word totdat is a subordinating conjunction, which means the clause following it is a subclause. In Dutch subclauses, the conjugated verb is pushed to the very end, which is why begint comes after its subject de vergadering.
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