Breakdown of Wij bouwen de kraam op en dekken de koopwaar af.
en
and
wij
we
opbouwen
to set up / to build up
de kraam
the stall
Questions & Answers about Wij bouwen de kraam op en dekken de koopwaar af.
Why isn't the subject wij repeated after en?
This is a classic example of conjunction reduction (samentrekking). When two main clauses are joined by coordinating conjunctions like en, maar, or of, and they share the exact same subject, you can drop the subject in the second clause. Instead of saying Wij bouwen de kraam op en wij dekken de koopwaar af, we simply omit the second wij.
Why is the separable prefix op placed before en rather than at the very end of the sentence?
Because en links two distinct main clauses. The first clause is Wij bouwen de kraam op. In a main clause, a separable prefix always goes to the end of its own specific clause, not the end of the entire sentence. The second clause (dekken de koopwaar af) then acts as its own domain, placing its prefix (af) at its own end.
If the subjects are the same, what else can be omitted in a samentrekking?
You can also omit verbs, direct objects, or indirect objects if they are identical in both clauses, have the same grammatical function, and mean the exact same thing. In this sentence, the verbs (opbouwen and afdekken) and the objects (de kraam and de koopwaar) are completely different, so only the subject wij is eligible to be dropped.
Is koopwaar singular or plural here?