Breakdown of De mislukking is te wijten aan de fout die door hen is veroorzaakt.
zijn
to be
hen
them (object)
de fout
the mistake
te
to (infinitive marker)
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
veroorzaken
to cause
wijten aan
to blame on
de mislukking
the failure
Questions & Answers about De mislukking is te wijten aan de fout die door hen is veroorzaakt.
Why do we use te wijten aan here instead of te danken aan?
In Dutch, you attribute a cause differently depending on whether the outcome is negative or positive. Because de mislukking (the failure) is a negative event, we use te wijten aan (to blame on / due to). If the outcome were positive, like a success, you would use te danken aan (thanks to / due to).
The English translation says "was caused", but the Dutch says is veroorzaakt. Why use is instead of werd?
This is the present perfect passive voice. In Dutch, when an action is completed and we are looking at the resulting state in the present, the passive voice uses the auxiliary verb zijn (here, is) plus the past participle (veroorzaakt). Using werd veroorzaakt (simple past passive) is also grammatically correct, but it would focus more on the narrative action occurring in the past rather than the present fact.
Why do we use die right after de fout?
Die is a relative pronoun here, meaning "that" or "which", and it refers back to de fout (the mistake). Because fout is a de-word, we must use die. If it had been a het-word, we would have needed dat.
Why do we need the word door before hen?
In a passive sentence, door translates to "by". It introduces the "agent"—the person or thing that actually performs the action. Therefore, door hen tells us that the mistake was caused "by them".
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