Breakdown of De familie smeekt je om haar vrij te laten.
de familie
the family
haar
her
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
smeken
to beg
vrijlaten
to release
Questions & Answers about De familie smeekt je om haar vrij te laten.
Why is the verb smeekt singular when a family consists of multiple people?
In Dutch, collective nouns like de familie (the family) or het team (the team) are strictly treated as singular, even if they refer to multiple people. This is different from British English, where you might sometimes use a plural verb like 'the family beg'.
In the phrase smeekt je om, who is actually doing the releasing?
You (je) are. This is an object control sentence, meaning the object of the main verb (je) acts as the implied subject of the infinitive clause. The family does the begging, but they are asking you to do the releasing.
Is the word om strictly necessary in this sentence?
With the verb smeken (to beg), the om is optional but very common. You could just say De familie smeekt je haar vrij te laten, but adding om clearly marks the start of the infinitive clause and sounds very natural.
Why is it written as vrij te laten instead of te vrijlaten?
The verb here is vrijlaten (to release / to set free), which is a separable verb. When a separable verb is used with te, the te is sandwiched between the separable prefix (vrij) and the core verb (laten), and they are written as three separate words.
Why does haar come right after om instead of at the end of the sentence?
In an om ... te clause, all the objects and extra details must be squeezed between the word om and the te + infinitive at the very end. Since haar is the direct object being released, it sits in that middle slot.
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