Breakdown of Ik ben te moe om me vanavond te concentreren.
ik
I
zijn
to be
moe
tired
vanavond
tonight
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
zich concentreren
to concentrate
Questions & Answers about Ik ben te moe om me vanavond te concentreren.
Why is me in this sentence? In English, we just say "to concentrate", not "to concentrate myself".
In Dutch, zich concentreren is a reflexive verb, meaning it always needs a reflexive pronoun like me (myself), je (yourself), or zich (himself/herself/themselves). Since the subject of the sentence is ik, the matching pronoun is me.
Where exactly does the reflexive pronoun me go in an om ... te clause?
In an om ... te (in order to / to) clause, the reflexive pronoun usually comes immediately after om. Here, it is placed right after om and before the time word vanavond. The verb concentreren is pushed to the very end with te.
Why are there two te's in this sentence?
They have two different meanings here. The first te means "too" (te moe = too tired). The second te is part of the om ... te grammar structure, which goes before an infinitive verb to mean "to" or "in order to" (om ... te concentreren = to concentrate).
Could I drop the om and just say "Ik ben te moe me vanavond te concentreren"?
No, when you use the structure "too [adjective] to [do something]", Dutch requires the full om ... te combination. You need om to link the first part of the sentence to the action that you are too tired to do.
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