Breakdown of Hij meent de fout ontdekt te hebben en wil iedereen corrigeren.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
en
and
hebben
to have
willen
to want
de fout
the mistake
ontdekken
to discover
te
to (infinitive marker)
iedereen
everyone
menen
to claim / to believe (to be true)
corrigeren
to correct
Questions & Answers about Hij meent de fout ontdekt te hebben en wil iedereen corrigeren.
Why does meent translate to "claims" here instead of "thinks" or "means"?
While menen often translates to "to be of the opinion" or "to mean (seriously)", when it is paired with te + infinitive, it expresses that the subject firmly believes or subjectively claims something to be true. Hij meent ... te hebben means he genuinely believes (and thus claims) he has done it.
Could I use beweren instead of menen in this sentence?
How does the word order work in the phrase ontdekt te hebben?
This is a perfect infinitive ("to have discovered"). In Dutch, the past participle (ontdekt) typically sits right before the te + infinitive auxiliary (te hebben). While you might sometimes encounter te hebben ontdekt, placing the participle first (ontdekt te hebben) is the standard and most natural-sounding order.
Why is there no subject or te in the second half of the sentence (en wil iedereen corrigeren)?
The conjunction en connects two main clauses that share the same subject (hij). Because the subject hasn't changed, you can drop it in the second clause. As for the missing te, the second clause is built around the modal verb wil (from willen), which always takes a bare infinitive (corrigeren) without te.
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