Breakdown of Men vindt dat het oude asfalt moet worden geïnspecteerd.
oud
old
moeten
to have to, must
worden
to become
dat
that (conjunction)
vinden
to think / consider (hold an opinion)
men
one / people (general)
inspecteren
to inspect
het asfalt
the asphalt
Questions & Answers about Men vindt dat het oude asfalt moet worden geïnspecteerd.
How does the passive voice work with the modal verb in "moet worden geïnspecteerd"?
In English, you say "must be inspected". Dutch builds this in a similar way: it uses the modal verb (moet), the passive helper verb (worden, which here translates to "to be"), and the past participle (geïnspecteerd).
Why are all three verbs stacked at the end of the sentence?
The word dat (that) introduces a subclause, which forces all verbs to the end of the phrase. When you have a passive cluster like this, the modal verb (moet) usually sits at the front of the verb group, followed by the infinitive (worden) and the past participle (geïnspecteerd).
Does "Men vindt" literally translate to "Men find"?
No, men is an indefinite pronoun meaning "one", "people", or "they" in a general sense. The verb vinden literally means "to find", but it is used very often in Dutch to mean "to think" or "to have an opinion". So men vindt easily translates to "people think" or "it is believed".
Why are there two dots on the 'i' in "geïnspecteerd"?
The two dots (a trema) are added to prevent you from pronouncing the e from the ge- prefix and the i from the verb root together as the Dutch ei sound (like in klein). It tells you that a new syllable starts right at the i.
Why is there an -e added to "oude"?
Asfalt is a het-word (het asfalt). When an adjective comes after a definite article (de or het), it gets an -e ending. If you were saying "old asphalt" without the word "the", it would drop the ending and become oud asfalt.
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