Breakdown of Ik vind het buitengewoon om een krachtige danser te zien.
ik
I
een
a/an
zien
to see
het
it
vinden
to think / consider (hold an opinion)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
de danser
the dancer
krachtig
powerful
buitengewoon
extraordinary
Questions & Answers about Ik vind het buitengewoon om een krachtige danser te zien.
Why do we say Ik vind het... instead of just Ik vind buitengewoon...?
In this sentence, het is an anticipatory provisional object. The verb vinden expects an object, but the actual object here is the entire action at the end: om een krachtige danser te zien. Because Dutch grammar doesn't let you squeeze that whole phrase into the middle of the sentence, het acts as a placeholder to satisfy the verb.
The English translation says "I think", so why use vinden instead of denken?
In Dutch, you use vinden (literally "to find") to express a personal opinion, taste, or judgment. Denken is used for the cognitive process of thinking or guessing a fact (like "I think it is raining"). Since finding a dancer extraordinary is an opinion, you must use vinden.
How does the om ... te structure work in the second half of this sentence?
When connecting a new action ("to see a powerful dancer") to your main clause, Dutch often uses the om ... te + infinitive structure. The word om introduces the phrase, the extra details (een krachtige danser) go in the middle, and te is placed immediately before the infinitive verb (zien) at the very end.
Is the word buitengewoon related to gewoon (normal)?
Yes! It is literally a combination of buiten (outside) and gewoon (normal or ordinary). So something that is buitengewoon is literally "outside the ordinary", which perfectly translates to extraordinary or exceptional.
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