Breakdown of Ik lees dat de reus honderd jaar heeft moeten slapen.
ik
I
hebben
to have
lezen
to read
slapen
to sleep
honderd
one hundred
het jaar
the year
moeten
to have to, must
dat
that (conjunction)
de reus
the giant
Questions & Answers about Ik lees dat de reus honderd jaar heeft moeten slapen.
Why is heeft placed before moeten slapen? I thought conjugated verbs go at the very end of a dat clause.
In a standard subordinate clause, you can often put the conjugated verb at the very end. However, when you have a double infinitive at the end of the clause (like moeten slapen), the conjugated auxiliary verb (heeft) must come before the infinitives. It is incorrect to say ...honderd jaar moeten slapen heeft.
Why does the sentence use the infinitive moeten instead of the past participle gemoeten?
This is due to the "double infinitive" rule. When a modal verb like moeten is used in the perfect tense along with another verb (slapen), it loses its ge- prefix and takes its infinitive form instead of its past participle form. So, instead of heeft gemoeten slapen, it becomes heeft moeten slapen.
How exactly does heeft moeten slapen translate to "has had to sleep"?
Let's break it down: heeft is the helping verb "has", moeten acts here as "had to" (taking the infinitive shape because of the rule above), and slapen is "sleep". Together, they form the present perfect tense of "must sleep" or "have to sleep".
Could I put honderd jaar after the verbs, like we do in English?
No. Because this is a subordinate clause starting with dat, all the verbs must clump together at the end of the clause. The time expression honderd jaar has to be placed before the verb cluster heeft moeten slapen.
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