Breakdown of Wij hebben een urgent document door te nemen, want het heeft de prioriteit.
een
a/an
wij
we
hebben
to have
het
it
want
because
het document
the document
te
to (infinitive marker)
urgent
urgent
de prioriteit
the priority
doornemen
to go through
Questions & Answers about Wij hebben een urgent document door te nemen, want het heeft de prioriteit.
How does the "hebben + te + infinitive" structure work in this sentence?
This structure expresses a task or obligation you possess, very similar to the English "have [something] to [do]". Here, hebben is the main verb, the object is een urgent document, and the action you have to perform on it is added at the end with te plus the infinitive verb.
Why is it written as door te nemen as three separate words instead of te doornemen?
Doornemen (to go through) is a separable verb, made of the prefix door and the base verb nemen. When you use te with a separable verb, it always gets sandwiched between the prefix and the base verb, creating the phrase door te nemen.
Why is there no -e at the end of urgent?
Document is a neuter word (het document). In Dutch, when a neuter noun is preceded by the indefinite article een (a/an), the adjective before it does not get an -e ending. If you were talking about "the" urgent document, it would be het urgente document.
Why doesn't the verb move to the end of the sentence after want?
Want (because/for) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it connects two independent main clauses, so the normal Subject-Verb word order is kept in the second part (het heeft). If you used omdat (which also means because), it would act as a subordinating conjunction and push the verb to the end: ...omdat het de prioriteit heeft.
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