Word
De baas draagt mij op om de keuken meteen schoon te maken.
Meaning
The boss instructs me to clean the kitchen immediately.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of De baas draagt mij op om de keuken meteen schoon te maken.
de keuken
the kitchen
de baas
the boss
schoonmaken
to clean
meteen
immediately
Questions & Answers about De baas draagt mij op om de keuken meteen schoon te maken.
How does this sentence structure show a reported command?
The main clause De baas draagt mij op introduces the command (The boss instructs me). The action itself is then attached using an om ... te phrase: om de keuken meteen schoon te maken. This is the standard way in Dutch to report a command or request.
Why is the verb for "to instruct" split into draagt ... op?
Opdragen is a separable verb. Because it is the active verb in a main clause, the core verb (draagt) takes the second position, and the separable prefix (op) moves to the end of that clause, right before the om part begins.
Why is the word te placed right in the middle of schoon te maken?
The verb for "to clean" is schoonmaken, which is also a separable verb. Whenever you use a separable verb with te, the te gets sandwiched exactly between the prefix (schoon) and the verb part (maken).
Could we say om te maken de keuken meteen schoon?
No, because an om ... te construction acts like a subclause. That means all verbs are pushed to the very end of the sentence. The object (de keuken) and the adverb (meteen) must come after om but before the final verb group (schoon te maken).