Learn Dutch: Het apparaat bleek te functioneren. Desondanks heb ik het moeten terugsturen. - The device turned out to function. Nevertheless, I had to send it back.

The word desondanks (nevertheless) is an adverb acting as a connector. When you start a main clause with an adverb like this, the verb must come directly after it, pushing the subject to the third position. This is known as the V2 (verb-second) rule, giving us Desondanks heb ik... instead of Desondanks ik heb....

Why is it heb... moeten terugsturen and not heb... gemoeten terugsturen?

In Dutch, when a modal verb like moeten (must/have to) is used with another verb in the perfect tense, it does not take its usual past participle form. Instead, it stays in its infinitive form. This creates a double infinitive at the end of the sentence: moeten terugsturen.

How does bleek te work in the first sentence?

Bleek is the past tense of blijken, which means to turn out or to appear. It is often followed by te and an infinitive to express what something turned out to do or be. Here, bleek te functioneren means turned out to function.

Why is the pronoun het placed before the verbs in the second sentence?

In Dutch perfect tenses, the verbs stack up at the very end of the clause. Because moeten terugsturen forms a verb block at the end, the direct object (het, meaning it) must be placed before that block, right after the subject.