Breakdown of Wij bouwen de kraam op en pakken de dozen uit.
en
and
wij
we
de doos
the box
uitpakken
to unwrap
Questions & Answers about Wij bouwen de kraam op en pakken de dozen uit.
Why is the word wij missing after en?
This is an example of conjunction reduction (samentrekking). In Dutch, you can leave out parts of a coordinated sentence joined by en, maar, or of if they are identical in both clauses. Here, wij is the subject in both clauses, so you only need to say it once.
Both verbs (opbouwen and uitpakken) are separable. How does coordination with en affect where the prefixes go?
It does not change the basic rule: the separable prefix goes to the end of its own clause. In the first clause, op goes to the end, right before the conjunction en. In the second clause, uit goes to the absolute end of the sentence.
Could we leave out the article de in the second part since it is also used in the first part?
No, you cannot drop de here. You can only omit a word in a samentrekking if the exact same word serves the exact same function for identical phrases. While both nouns take de, they are different objects (de kraam vs. de dozen). You cannot drop an article just because the previous noun also used it.
If I started the sentence with Vandaag (Today), could I still drop the second wij?