Breakdown of Ik ben gisteren wezen studeren om dit academische essay beter te formuleren.
ik
I
zijn
to be
dit
this (neuter)
gisteren
yesterday
studeren
to study
beter
better
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
wezen
to go (auxiliary for past outings)
het essay
the essay
academisch
academic
formuleren
to formulate
Questions & Answers about Ik ben gisteren wezen studeren om dit academische essay beter te formuleren.
Why is it ben wezen studeren instead of ben geweest studeren?
This is a classic example of the Dutch double infinitive rule. When you want to express that you went out to do an activity, you use a form of zijn combined with the action verb. Because there are two verbs at the end, the past participle geweest turns into the infinitive wezen.
Since essay is a het-word, why does the adjective academische get an -e at the end?
You only drop the -e ending for het-words when they are preceded by the indefinite article een or no article at all. Because this sentence uses the definite demonstrative pronoun dit (this), the adjective gets the standard -e ending.
Why does the adverb beter come before te formuleren at the end of the sentence?
In an om ... te (in order to) clause, the te plus the infinitive verb must always be placed at the very end. Any objects or adverbs, such as dit academische essay and beter, get pushed before it.
The current lesson is about geacht worden te. How would using that change the meaning here?
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