Breakdown of Haar wordt afgeraden om roekeloos te gokken.
haar
her
worden
to become
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
Questions & Answers about Haar wordt afgeraden om roekeloos te gokken.
Why does this sentence start with the object pronoun Haar instead of Zij, even though the English translation is "She is advised"?
This highlights a major rule for Dutch passive sentences. In English, the indirect object of an active sentence (e.g., "They advise her") can become the subject of a passive sentence ("She is advised"). In Dutch, this is not allowed. The indirect object must remain an object, which is why we must use the object pronoun haar.
If haar is the object, what is the grammatical subject of this sentence?
The subject is actually the entire action at the end of the sentence: om roekeloos te gokken (to gamble recklessly). Literally, the sentence structure is: "To gamble recklessly is advised against to her."
Could I structure this sentence differently if I didn't want to put haar in the first position?
Yes, you can use the dummy subject er to fill the first position so that the verb stays in the second position. The sentence would then be: Er wordt haar afgeraden om roekeloos te gokken.
Why is there a -ge- in the middle of afgeraden?
Afraden (to advise against) is a separable verb. As a quick refresher, when forming the past participle of a separable verb, the standard -ge- is placed between the separable prefix (af-) and the core verb (raden), resulting in afgeraden.