Breakdown of Het was die expeditie die de top wist te naderen.
zijn
to be
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
het
it
te
to (infinitive marker)
de top
the peak / the top
de expeditie
the expedition
weten te
to manage to
naderen
to approach (come closer)
Questions & Answers about Het was die expeditie die de top wist te naderen.
Why does wist te naderen translate to "managed to approach" instead of something about "knowing"?
When the verb weten is followed by te and an infinitive, it acts as an auxiliary verb of achievement. Instead of "to know," it means "to manage to" or "to succeed in" doing something. Here, wist is the simple past form, so wist te naderen means the expedition successfully managed to approach the peak.
Why is the sentence structured as Het was die expeditie die... instead of just saying "Die expeditie wist..."?
This is a cleft sentence, a structure used to put strong emphasis on a specific part of the statement. By phrasing it as Het was die expeditie die... (It was that expedition that...), the speaker highlights that this particular expedition, and not any of the others, was the one that succeeded.
Why do we use die twice in a row in die expeditie die?
They are two different types of pronouns that happen to look identical here. The first die is a demonstrative pronoun meaning "that" (die expeditie = that expedition). The second die is a relative pronoun meaning "that" or "which", linking the clause back to the expedition. Because expeditie is a de-word, both must be die rather than dat.
Does the verb naderen ever need a preposition like naar to mean "approach to"?
No, naderen (to approach) is a transitive verb in Dutch. This means it takes a direct object right after it without needing a preposition. You simply say de top naderen (to approach the peak), just as you usually do in English.
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