Breakdown of We moeten erop letten dat we tactloos commentaar vermijden.
wij
we
moeten
to have to, must
dat
that (conjunction)
vermijden
to avoid
erop
on it
letten op
to pay attention to
het commentaar
the comment / the feedback
tactloos
tactless
Questions & Answers about We moeten erop letten dat we tactloos commentaar vermijden.
Why is erop used here instead of just op?
The verb phrase is letten op (to make sure of / to pay attention to). Because you cannot link a preposition directly to a dat-clause in Dutch (you cannot say op dat), you must use a pronominal adverb. The op turns into erop to point forward to the subordinate clause.
The English translation says 'comments' (plural), but the Dutch sentence uses the singular commentaar. Why?
In Dutch, commentaar is generally treated as an uncountable mass noun, much like 'feedback' or 'criticism' in English. If you need to refer to countable, individual comments, you would typically use the word opmerkingen instead.
Why doesn't the adjective tactloos get an -e ending here?
Commentaar is a neuter noun (het commentaar). When a neuter noun is used indefinitely—in this case, as an uncountable noun with no article—the adjective modifying it does not get an -e ending. If you made it definite, it would become het tactloze commentaar.
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