Breakdown of Wij verduisteren de kamer, opdat het perkament behouden blijft.
wij
we
de kamer
the room
blijven
to stay
behouden
to preserve/to keep
het perkament
the parchment
verduisteren
to darken
opdat
so that / in order that (purpose)
Questions & Answers about Wij verduisteren de kamer, opdat het perkament behouden blijft.
Why is opdat used here instead of zodat?
The word opdat is a formal subordinating conjunction that means "so that" or "in order that" to express a goal or purpose. While you will almost exclusively hear zodat in spoken Dutch, you need to recognize opdat for B2-level reading, such as in literature, news, or formal documents.
How does opdat affect the word order of the sentence?
Because opdat is a subordinating conjunction, it introduces a subordinate clause and sends all the verbs to the end of that clause. This is why the subject het perkament comes early, and the verbs behouden blijft are placed at the very end.
The verbs at the end are behouden blijft. Could we also say blijft behouden?
Yes, you can flip them! In Dutch subordinate clauses, when you have a conjugated verb like blijft and a participle or infinitive like behouden, they form a verb cluster at the end. The order of these verbs is often flexible. This is known as the red and green word order, and both behouden blijft and blijft behouden are perfectly correct here.
How is the verb verduisteren constructed?
It is built from the adjective duister, which means dark or obscure. By wrapping the adjective with the prefix ver- and the suffix -en, it turns into a verb meaning "to make dark". You will see this same word-building pattern in many other Dutch verbs, such as vernieuwen (to renew) from nieuw (new).
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