Breakdown of 's Morgens heb ik veel urgente e-mails te beantwoorden.
ik
I
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
de e-mail
the email
's morgens
in the morning
te
to (infinitive marker)
urgent
urgent
beantwoorden
to answer (e.g. a question, letter)
Questions & Answers about 's Morgens heb ik veel urgente e-mails te beantwoorden.
Why use heb ... te beantwoorden instead of just using moeten (must / have to)?
The structure hebben + te + infinitive expresses an active task or something on your to-do list, just like "have [something] to [verb]" in English. While ik moet veel e-mails beantwoorden (I must answer many emails) is also correct, using heb ... te emphasizes that these emails are physical or digital items you currently possess that require your action.
Why is the word order heb ik instead of ik heb?
This is due to inversion. Because the sentence starts with the time expression 's Morgens, the conjugated verb (heb) must stay in the second position in the sentence. This forces the subject (ik) to swap places with the verb and take the third position.
What exactly does the 's in 's Morgens mean?
It is a leftover from old Dutch grammar, standing for des (meaning "of the"). So 's Morgens translates literally to "of the morning". You will often see this used to describe regular habits, like 's middags (in the afternoons) or 's zomers (in the summers). Note that the apostrophe always comes before the s.
Why is there an -e at the end of urgente?
Because e-mails is plural. In Dutch, any adjective placed directly before a plural noun always gets an -e ending, regardless of whether the singular version of the noun is a de word or a het word.
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