Breakdown of Wij bekritiseren hen en sturen hun de publicatie.
en
and
wij
we
hun
their
sturen
to send
hen
them (object)
de publicatie
the publication
bekritiseren
to criticize
Questions & Answers about Wij bekritiseren hen en sturen hun de publicatie.
Why does this sentence use both hen and hun to mean 'them'?
This sentence perfectly illustrates the formal written rule for plural object pronouns. Hen is used as the direct object of bekritiseren (they are the ones being criticized). Hun is used as the indirect object of sturen because there is no preposition (they are the ones receiving the publication).
If I wanted to include the word 'to' and say 'send the publication to them', would I still use hun?
No. If you add a preposition like aan (to), the formal rule requires you to use hen. You would write: ... en sturen de publicatie aan hen. You only use hun when the indirect object does not have a preposition.
Would Dutch speakers actually make this strict distinction in casual speech?
Rarely. The strict hen versus hun distinction is largely a written rule. In everyday, informal spoken Dutch, people typically use the unstressed pronoun ze for both direct and indirect objects: Wij bekritiseren ze en sturen ze de publicatie.
Is it grammatically correct to drop wij after the word en here?
Yes. Because both verbs (bekritiseren and sturen) share the exact same subject (wij), you can safely drop the subject in the second clause. This works exactly the same way it does in English.
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