Breakdown of Je hoeft de asbakken slechts leeg te maken.
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
hoeven
to need (to)
te
to (infinitive marker)
slechts
only / merely (just, no more than)
de asbak
the ashtray
leegmaken
to empty out
Questions & Answers about Je hoeft de asbakken slechts leeg te maken.
Why is te placed between leeg and maken?
Leegmaken (to empty) is a separable verb. When a separable verb is used with te (which is required here by hoeven), the te is placed between the prefix (leeg) and the base verb (maken), forming the three-part phrase leeg te maken.
Why do we use hoeft here instead of moet?
Why does slechts come after de asbakken rather than before it?
Slechts behaves similarly to niet regarding word order. It is placed after a specific direct object like de asbakken. If you placed it before the object, it would heavily emphasize that you only have to empty the ashtrays (and not, for example, the trash cans), which unnaturally shifts the focus away from the action.
How would the spoken-language aan het split taught in this lesson work with the verb leegmaken?
Standard Dutch for 'you are emptying' is je bent aan het leegmaken. However, in spoken Dutch, people often split the separable verb and place the prefix before aan het, resulting in je bent leeg aan het maken. This spoken separation mirrors how te perfectly splits the verb into leeg te maken in our main sentence.
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