Breakdown of De lava dreigt over de helling te stromen.
te
to (infinitive marker)
stromen
to flow
over
over, across (spatial)
dreigen
to threaten (to do something) / to be at risk of
de lava
the lava
de helling
the slope
Questions & Answers about De lava dreigt over de helling te stromen.
Does dreigen imply the lava is making a conscious threat?
No. In this lesson's context, dreigen te acts as an aspectual auxiliary of imminence. It simply means that a negative or undesirable event is highly likely to happen soon. While you can translate this literally as "threatens to", it often feels more natural in English to say the lava "is at risk of" or "is in danger of" flowing over the slope.
Why does te stromen go at the very end of the sentence instead of right after dreigt?
Because dreigen acts like an auxiliary verb here, it takes the standard second position in the main clause. The verb showing the actual action (stromen) gets pushed to the very end of the clause along with te. This creates a verbal bracket around the prepositional phrase over de helling.
Could I use beloven te instead of dreigen te if I just want to say it is "likely to" flow?
Grammatically you could, but it would sound very strange! While beloven te (to promise to) also indicates that something is likely to happen, it is used almost exclusively for positive or desired outcomes. Because lava flowing over a hillside is a destructive event, you must use dreigen te for this negative outcome.
Does the preposition over mean the lava is flowing "above" the slope?
Not in this context. While over can mean "above" (like a bird flying over a mountain), with verbs of motion involving physical contact like stromen, it means moving across or covering the surface. So here, the lava is flowing directly across the surface of the incline (de helling).
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