Breakdown of De scheur in de straat kan online worden gemeld.
in
in
kunnen
can
worden
to become
de straat
the street
online
online
de scheur
the crack
melden
to report
Questions & Answers about De scheur in de straat kan online worden gemeld.
Why do we use the infinitive worden here instead of wordt?
Because of the modal verb kan (can). A normal present passive sentence uses a conjugated form of worden plus a past participle (like De scheur wordt gemeld meaning 'The crack is reported'). But when you add a modal verb, that modal takes the main conjugated spot, forcing worden into its full infinitive form.
Why are both worden and gemeld pushed all the way to the end?
In a Dutch main clause, only the primary conjugated verb (here, kan) gets the second position. All other verbs belonging to the verb phrase—in this case, the passive auxiliary worden and the past participle gemeld—must cluster together at the very end of the sentence.
Is it also correct to say gemeld worden instead of worden gemeld?
Yes, absolutely! When a sentence ends with an infinitive and a past participle together, Dutch allows you to put them in either order. Both kan online worden gemeld and kan online gemeld worden are grammatically correct and perfectly natural to say.
As a quick refresher, why does the past participle gemeld end in a -d rather than a -t?
It follows the 't kofschip rule. The infinitive of the verb is melden. If you chop off the -en, the stem ends in d. Since the letter d is a voiced consonant and not in 't kofschip, the past participle takes a -d ending. Since the stem already ends in d, it simply becomes ge- + meld.
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