Breakdown of Wil het graag doorschuiven naar half vier.
vier
four
naar
to
willen
to want
het
it
half
half (past) / half (fraction)
graag
gladly
doorschuiven
to postpone / to push back (to shift to a later time or pass on)
Questions & Answers about Wil het graag doorschuiven naar half vier.
Why does this sentence start with the verb wil instead of a subject?
In casual spoken Dutch, you can drop a pronoun if it is the very first word in the main clause and isn't stressed. Here, the speaker dropped ik (I). Because the first position is now empty, the sentence starts with the verb, but grammatically it's still a standard declarative sentence: [Ik] wil het graag doorschuiven...
Why use doorschuiven instead of uitstellen for 'to postpone'?
While uitstellen is the general word for 'to delay' or 'to postpone', doorschuiven literally means 'to slide forward' or 'to push along'. In a scheduling context, you use doorschuiven to mean moving a meeting or task to a later time slot. It sounds very practical, like physically sliding a block down your calendar.
Why is the preposition naar used before the time here?
When you change an appointment or move something to a new time, Dutch uses naar (to), just as it does for physical destinations. You are metaphorically moving the event 'to' the half vier slot.
Just as a refresher, is half vier 3:30 or 4:30?
It is 3:30. Even at an advanced level, this is easy to slip up on when speaking quickly! In Dutch, half-hours always look ahead to the next hour, so half vier literally means 'halfway to four'.
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