Word
Het was de expeditie die de vallei wist te bereiken.
Meaning
It was the expedition that managed to reach the valley.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het was de expeditie die de vallei wist te bereiken.
zijn
to be
het
it
te
to (infinitive marker)
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Het was de expeditie die de vallei wist te bereiken.
Why does wist te bereiken translate as managed to reach rather than knew to reach?
When the verb weten is combined with te and an infinitive, it acts as an auxiliary verb of achievement. Instead of its usual meaning of knowing a fact, it translates to managing to or succeeding in doing an action. Here, wist te bereiken simply means managed to reach.
Why do wist and te bereiken appear at the very end of the sentence?
The word die introduces a relative clause, which always follows subclause word order. In a Dutch subclause, all verbs are sent to the end. Therefore, the conjugated verb wist and the infinitive te bereiken cluster together after the object de vallei.
Could we use dat instead of die here?
No, because die is a relative pronoun referring back to de expeditie, which is a de word. You only use dat as a relative pronoun when referring back to a het word.
Could I use the verb lukken here instead of weten te to say the expedition succeeded?