Breakdown of Men schijnt deze video ook te verspreiden.
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
deze
this / these
te
to (infinitive marker)
men
one / people (general)
Questions & Answers about Men schijnt deze video ook te verspreiden.
How would this sentence look if we didn't use the te + infinitive structure?
You would use a dat-clause. The unraised version of the sentence would be: Het schijnt dat men deze video ook verspreidt. In our sentence, the subject men has been pulled into the main clause, turning the verb verspreidt into the infinitive te verspreiden.
Why is it schijnt and not schijnen if men translates to 'people'?
Even though men refers to people in a general, plural sense, it is grammatically singular in Dutch. Just like the English pronoun 'one' (as in 'one does not simply...'), it always takes a singular conjugated verb.
Could I use lijkt instead of schijnt here?
You could, but it shifts the nuance. Schijnen strongly implies hearsay or a rumor, meaning you heard or read that people are spreading the video. Lijken implies an impression based on your own direct observation, as if you personally saw the video popping up everywhere.
Why are te and verspreiden placed at the very end of the sentence?
In a subject-raising sentence, schijnen acts almost like a modal auxiliary verb. The conjugated verb schijnt stays in the normal second position, but it pushes the te + infinitive to the very end of the clause, wrapping around the object deze video.