Breakdown of Ondanks dat het mislukt, doe ik een poging om te blijven oefenen.
ik
I
een
a/an
doen
to do
het
it
blijven
to stay
oefenen
to practice
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
mislukken
to fail (be unsuccessful)
ondanks dat
despite the fact that
de poging
the attempt
Questions & Answers about Ondanks dat het mislukt, doe ik een poging om te blijven oefenen.
Why is te placed before blijven instead of oefenen in the phrase om te blijven oefenen?
When you use an om ... te construction with multiple infinitives, the te always goes immediately before the first infinitive in the verbal chain. Here, blijven (to keep/remain) acts as an auxiliary verb to oefenen (to practice). Therefore, te must go right before blijven, not before the main verb.
Why use doe (from doen) instead of a translation of 'make' for 'make an attempt'?
In Dutch, certain collocations (fixed word combinations) differ from English. While English speakers 'make' an attempt, Dutch speakers 'do' an attempt. The standard expression is een poging doen. The verb maken is generally reserved for physically creating, crafting, or repairing something.
Why is it Ondanks dat instead of just Ondanks, and why does mislukt go at the end?
Ondanks by itself is a preposition meaning 'despite' (e.g., ondanks het weer - despite the weather). When you want to follow it with a full clause containing a subject and a verb ('despite the fact that it fails'), you must add dat. Because dat introduces a subordinate clause, it pushes the verb mislukt to the very end of that clause.
Why does the main clause start with doe ik instead of ik doe?
This is because of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire subordinate clause (Ondanks dat het mislukt) counts as the first block of information in the sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, doe must come right after the comma, which forces the subject ik to invert and follow it.
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