Word
Ik zie een glazen kasteel waarin de boze heks heeft moeten wonen.
Meaning
I see a glass castle in which the angry witch has had to live.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ik zie een glazen kasteel waarin de boze heks heeft moeten wonen.
ik
I
een
a/an
hebben
to have
zien
to see
Questions & Answers about Ik zie een glazen kasteel waarin de boze heks heeft moeten wonen.
Why does heeft come before moeten wonen at the end of the sentence?
This is the core rule for double infinitives in a subordinate clause (like the one starting with waarin). When you have a finite auxiliary verb (heeft) and a double infinitive (moeten wonen), the finite verb must go in front of the infinitives. You cannot put it at the very end like you normally would with a single verb; saying ...moeten wonen heeft is incorrect.
The English translation says 'has had to live'. Why does Dutch use the infinitive moeten instead of a past participle like gemoeten?
This is the double infinitive rule. In Dutch, when a modal verb like moeten is followed by another infinitive (wonen) in the perfect tense, it changes into an infinitive itself instead of taking its past participle form. So it becomes heeft moeten wonen, not heeft gemoeten wonen.
Why do we use waarin for 'in which' instead of in wat or in welk?
In Dutch, when a preposition (like in) is combined with a pronoun referring to a thing (like the castle), they usually merge into a 'pronominal adverb'. We combine waar + in to make waarin. It is similar to the old-fashioned English word 'wherein', but it is completely standard in everyday Dutch.
Why does the adjective for glass (glazen) end in -en?