Breakdown of Wij moeten het zeil vastbinden en de koopwaar uitstallen.
en
and
wij
we
moeten
to have to, must
uitstallen
to display / to lay out (goods for show)
de koopwaar
the merchandise
het zeil
the tarp / the canvas (tarpaulin, sail)
vastbinden
to tie down
Questions & Answers about Wij moeten het zeil vastbinden en de koopwaar uitstallen.
Why is there no subject or conjugated verb after en?
This is called conjunction reduction (samentrekking). Because the second action also applies to the subject wij and uses the same helping verb moeten, you can leave them out in the second half. The full unreduced sentence would be: Wij moeten het zeil vastbinden en wij moeten de koopwaar uitstallen.
Could we also omit the object if the second action involved the tarp as well?
Yes. If both verbs applied to the exact same object, you could omit it in the second clause. For example, 'We must tie down and clean the tarp' would be Wij moeten het zeil vastbinden en schoonmaken. Because the objects in this sentence are different (het zeil versus de koopwaar), both must be explicitly stated.
Both vastbinden and uitstallen are separable verbs. Why aren't they split up in this sentence?
Because of the conjugated modal verb moeten, the main action verbs are pushed to the end of their respective clauses as full infinitives. Separable verbs are only split when they act as the finite (conjugated) verb in the sentence, which would look like: Wij binden het zeil vast.
Is koopwaar considered singular or plural?
Just like the English word 'merchandise', koopwaar is an uncountable singular noun. If it were the subject of a sentence, it would always take a singular conjugated verb.
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