Breakdown of Ik wilde je niet dwingen om te antwoorden.
ik
I
niet
not
willen
to want
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
antwoorden
to answer
dwingen
to force
Questions & Answers about Ik wilde je niet dwingen om te antwoorden.
Why do we use om te before antwoorden?
When you report a command, request, or an action forced on someone, Dutch uses om te plus the infinitive verb. So 'to force you to answer' becomes dwingen om te antwoorden. You will see this pattern a lot with verbs like vragen (to ask), bevelen (to order), and dwingen (to force).
Why is niet placed right after je?
In Dutch word order, niet usually comes after specific objects, like the pronoun je. It also needs to come before the verb it is negating (dwingen). If you put niet before je, it would sound like you wanted to force 'not you, but someone else'.
Can I use wou instead of wilde here?
Yes, you can. Both wou and wilde are past tense forms of willen (to want). Wilde is the standard form used in both writing and speech, while wou is informal and mostly used in everyday spoken Dutch.
Could we use jou instead of je in this sentence?
You absolutely can use jou if you want to put special emphasis on the person. Using je is the standard, unstressed way to say it. If you say Ik wilde jou niet dwingen, it strongly implies 'I did not want to force YOU (but maybe I wanted to force someone else)'.
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