Breakdown of Deze culinaire ervaring laat zich moeilijk omschrijven.
deze
this / these
moeilijk
difficult
zich
oneself
laten
to let (laten we ... = let's ...)
de ervaring
the experience
culinair
culinary
omschrijven
to describe (outline, define)
Questions & Answers about Deze culinaire ervaring laat zich moeilijk omschrijven.
How does laat zich ... omschrijven translate to "is difficult to describe"?
The construction zich laten + a bare infinitive expresses that something can be done to the subject (passive potentiality). Literally it means "lets itself be described," but in natural English, we usually say "can be described" or "is [adjective] to describe." Combined with the adverb moeilijk, it translates smoothly to "is difficult to describe."
Why is omschrijven at the very end of the sentence?
In this construction, laat acts as the conjugated verb in the second position of the sentence. As a modal-like helping verb, it sends the bare infinitive (omschrijven) to the very end of the clause. This is the standard Dutch sentence structure (the verbal bracket) that you already know from using verbs like kunnen or moeten.
Could I use beschrijven instead of omschrijven here?
Yes, you could use beschrijven (to describe), and the meaning would be almost identical. However, omschrijven often implies defining something, capturing its essence, or putting a tricky concept into words (literally "writing around" it), which fits perfectly with trying to explain a complex culinaire ervaring.
Why do we use deze instead of dit for "this culinary experience"?
Ervaring is a de-word. Therefore, the demonstrative pronoun for "this" must be deze, not dit (which is reserved for het-words). Because it is a de-word, the adjective culinair also gets the standard -e ending, becoming culinaire.
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