Breakdown of Zonder een verwachting te hebben, word je niet teleurgesteld.
een
a/an
niet
not
hebben
to have
worden
to become
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
teleurgesteld
disappointed
te
to (infinitive marker)
zonder
without
de verwachting
expectation
Questions & Answers about Zonder een verwachting te hebben, word je niet teleurgesteld.
Is verwachting a de or het word, and can I tell just by looking at it?
It is de verwachting. You can reliably tell because it ends in the suffix -ing. In Dutch, when you turn a verb (like verwachten, meaning to expect) into a noun by adding -ing, it is always a de word.
How does the grammatical structure of zonder... te hebben work here?
In English, you say 'without having' using an '-ing' verb. Dutch does not do this. Instead, it uses the structure zonder + [details] + te + [infinitive verb]. So 'without having an expectation' translates structurally to zonder een verwachting te hebben.
Why does the second half of the sentence begin with the verb word instead of the subject je?
Why is there no -t on word? Doesn't the 'you' form usually get one?
Normally, yes (as in je wordt). However, there is a strict spelling rule in Dutch: when the subject je or jij comes immediately after the verb due to inversion, the -t is dropped. That is why we write word je here.
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