Breakdown of Velen zijn te bang om van de kudde af te wijken.
zijn
to be
veel
much / many / a lot of
bang
scared
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
te
to (infinitive marker)
om
in order to
de kudde
the herd
afwijken
to deviate
Questions & Answers about Velen zijn te bang om van de kudde af te wijken.
Why does veel become velen here instead of just vele?
In this sentence, velen stands on its own to mean "many people." When words like veel, sommige, or andere are used independently (without a noun following them) and refer specifically to human beings, they take the plural -n suffix. If a noun were explicitly mentioned, you would drop the -n, as in vele mensen.
How does the om ... te structure work with te bang in this sentence?
The phrase te bang om ... te ... translates to "too afraid to ...". Whenever you express being "too [adjective] to [do something]" in Dutch, you use the om ... te structure to link the adjective to the infinitive verb.
Why is te placed right in the middle of afwijken?
Afwijken (to deviate) is a separable verb, made of the prefix af and the verb wijken. When a separable verb is used in a te + infinitive construction, the te must be placed directly between the separable prefix and the core verb. It is written as three separate words: af te wijken.
Does afwijken always use the preposition van?
Yes, afwijken van is a fixed combination meaning "to deviate from" or "to stray from." It maps perfectly to English here, which is handy, but it is always good to memorize the fixed preposition when learning a new verb.
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