Breakdown of We gebruiken die eenheden om de veiligheid te verbeteren.
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
gebruiken
to use
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
verbeteren
to improve
de veiligheid
the safety
de eenheid
the unit
Questions & Answers about We gebruiken die eenheden om de veiligheid te verbeteren.
Why is the plural of eenheid written as eenheden instead of just adding -en?
Nouns ending in -heid have an irregular plural form. Instead of keeping the original spelling and adding a suffix, the -heid ending completely changes to -heden. So, eenheid (unit) becomes eenheden (units). You will see this shift happen with almost all abstract nouns ending in -heid.
If we needed to make veiligheid plural, would it follow the same rule?
Yes! While talking about multiple types of safety is less common, if you needed the plural, veiligheid would become veiligheden. It follows the exact same pattern as eenheden.
Why do we need both om and te before verbeteren?
The structure om ... te followed by an infinitive verb (like verbeteren) is used to express a goal or purpose. It translates to "in order to" or just "to" in English. Here, om de veiligheid te verbeteren literally means "in order the safety to improve".
Why do we use die for "those" instead of dat?
Because eenheden is a plural noun. In Dutch, all plural nouns behave like de words, no matter what their singular gender is. This means they must use deze (these) or die (those), and never the het-word equivalents dit or dat.
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