Breakdown of Dat hij het lef had om ons te verraden!
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
ons
us (object)
dat
that (conjunction)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
verraden
to betray
het lef
the nerve
Questions & Answers about Dat hij het lef had om ons te verraden!
Why does this sentence start with Dat and push the verb had to the end of the clause?
This is an independent exclamatory dat-clause, used to express strong emotion like indignation or surprise. Even though it stands alone as a complete thought, it uses subordinate clause word order, pushing the finite verb (had) to the end of its clause, right before the om ... te phrase. You can think of it as an implied 'I cannot believe [that]...'.
Is lef a common word for 'nerve' in Dutch?
Yes, lef is a very common, everyday word for 'guts', 'courage', or 'nerve' (often in an audacious or negative sense, as used here). It originally comes from Yiddish/Bargoens slang but is completely standard Dutch today.
Why do we use the om ... te + infinitive structure here instead of just te?
While om ... te is most famous for meaning 'in order to', it is also the standard way to link certain abstract nouns to an action. Just like English uses 'the nerve to betray', Dutch connects the noun het lef to the infinitive verraden using the full om ... te construction.
Why is ons placed between om and te verraden?
In an om ... te construction, any objects or extra details related to the infinitive must be placed exactly between the word om and the te + infinitive cluster at the end of the sentence. Here, the direct object ons (us) slots perfectly into that middle space.
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