Word
Je weet hoe je liefde in woorden moet uitdrukken.
Meaning
You know how you must express love in words.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Je weet hoe je liefde in woorden moet uitdrukken.
in
in
het woord
the word
hoe
how
moeten
to have to, must
Questions & Answers about Je weet hoe je liefde in woorden moet uitdrukken.
How does the word liefde relate to the adjective lief?
Liefde (love) is formed by adding the suffix -de to the adjective lief (sweet, dear). This is a common pattern in Dutch used to turn adjectives describing physical properties or abstract concepts into nouns. Other examples include koud (cold) becoming koude (the cold) and diep (deep) becoming diepte (depth).
Why does the Dutch sentence say hoe je ... moet uitdrukken instead of just using an infinitive for "how to express"?
English frequently uses "how to" plus an infinitive verb. While Dutch occasionally uses hoe te plus an infinitive, it often sounds rigid or formal. The natural, everyday way to say "how to do something" in Dutch is to use a subordinate clause with a subject and a modal verb, usually moeten (must) or kunnen (can). So, "how to express" becomes "how you must express" (hoe je ... moet uitdrukken).
Uitdrukken is a separable verb. Why is it written as one connected word here instead of being split up?
Because it is inside a subordinate clause (introduced by hoe). In a simple main clause, the verb splits and the prefix goes to the end (e.g., Ik druk het in woorden uit). However, in a subordinate clause, all verbs are pushed to the end of the sentence. When a separable verb ends up at the back alongside an auxiliary or modal verb like moet, the prefix stays attached to the verb.