Breakdown of Zij koopt de krant zodat ze haar horoscoop kan lezen.
zij
she
lezen
to read
de krant
the newspaper
kopen
to buy
haar
her
kunnen
can
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
zodat
so that
de horoscoop
the horoscope
Questions & Answers about Zij koopt de krant zodat ze haar horoscoop kan lezen.
The lesson is about the order of hebben/zijn and a past participle. Does that same "red vs. green" rule apply to kan lezen?
Yes! Just like you can swap a perfect auxiliary and a past participle (like heeft gelezen vs. gelezen heeft), you can also swap a modal verb and an infinitive. Both ...zodat ze haar horoscoop kan lezen (red order) and ...zodat ze haar horoscoop lezen kan (green order) are completely correct.
Why are both verbs (kan and lezen) pushed to the very end?
The word zodat (so that) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause, which forces all verbs in that clause to abandon their normal position and group together in a cluster at the end.
Why does the sentence start with Zij but then use ze later?
Zij is the stressed form, which is often used at the beginning of a sentence to clearly establish the subject. Once we know who we are talking about, ze (the unstressed form) is used. Reusing zij in the second half would sound unnecessarily heavy, almost like saying "SHE buys the newspaper so that SHE can read..."
Could I use the om ... te structure instead of zodat to express purpose here?
Yes, you could! You could say Zij koopt de krant om haar horoscoop te kunnen lezen. Both express a goal, but zodat is often easier to build because it takes a normal sentence structure with a subject (ze), whereas om ... te requires you to drop the subject and link the verbs with te.
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