Word
We zien dat de kleuters naar de zandbak komen rennen.
Meaning
We see that the toddlers come running to the sandbox.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of We zien dat de kleuters naar de zandbak komen rennen.
zien
to see
naar
to
komen
to come
rennen
to run
Questions & Answers about We zien dat de kleuters naar de zandbak komen rennen.
Why is it komen rennen (infinitive) instead of a present participle like komen rennend to match the English "come running"?
When expressing the manner of arrival, Dutch uses komen followed by the bare infinitive of the action verb (like rennen, lopen, or vliegen). While English uses an "-ing" participle ("running"), Dutch strictly requires the infinitive for this specific grammar structure.
Since this is a subordinate clause, the verbs are pushed to the end. Could the order be reversed to rennen komen?
While Dutch often allows two verb orders at the end of a subordinate clause, there is a strong exception here. When combining an auxiliary of motion or posture (like komen, gaan, or blijven) with an infinitive, the conjugated verb almost always comes first. Therefore, komen rennen is the correct and natural choice.
How would this sentence look if we wanted to express the same meaning without using a dat clause?
Because the main verb is zien (a verb of perception), you can drop dat and use an infinitive construction: We zien de kleuters naar de zandbak komen rennen. Both versions are very common at a B2 level, but notice that in this alternative, komen acts as an infinitive rather than a conjugated verb.
Why do we use naar (naar de zandbak) here? Could we use in?