Breakdown of Hef het glas op moeders voorspoed!
op
on
de moeder
the mother
het glas
the glass
heffen
to raise (e.g. a glass)
de voorspoed
the prosperity
Questions & Answers about Hef het glas op moeders voorspoed!
Since this lesson is about subjunctives in fixed expressions, is hef a subjunctive form?
No, hef is simply the imperative (command) form of the verb heffen (to raise). While many traditional Dutch toasts do use the formulaic present subjunctive (like leve de koning), this specific sentence is just giving a direct command to the listeners to raise their glasses.
Could I use a more common verb like optillen instead of heffen here?
You could physically lift a glass with optillen, but het glas heffen is a fixed collocation in Dutch specifically used for toasting, exactly like 'raising a glass' in English. Using optillen would sound very literal and miss the ceremonial meaning.
Why do we use the preposition op here to mean 'to'?
In Dutch, when you toast or dedicate a drink to someone's health, happiness, or success, you always use the preposition op. You will often see this combined with verbs as well, such as proosten op (to toast to) and drinken op (to drink to).
Why doesn't moeders have an apostrophe like it does in English?
Dutch adds an -s for possession with names and family members just like English does, but it only uses an apostrophe if attaching the s directly would change the pronunciation of the final vowel (for example, oma's or Leo's). Because the -er in moeder isn't affected by adding an s, it is simply written as one word.
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