Breakdown of Je krijgt te horen waarom je je als een normale klant moet voordoen.
een
a/an
waarom
why
horen
to hear
moeten
to have to, must
de klant
the customer
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
krijgen
to get (receive)
normaal
normally / normal
als
as (like / conjunction)
te
to (infinitive marker)
zich voordoen
to pretend (to be)
Questions & Answers about Je krijgt te horen waarom je je als een normale klant moet voordoen.
Does krijgt te horen mean 'get to hear' or 'are told'?
Both! The structure krijgen te + infinitive is used to express receiving information. While it translates literally to 'get to hear', in natural English it often means 'are told'. It is a very common way in Dutch to express this kind of passive reception, especially with verbs like horen, zien, and weten.
Why are there two je's right next to each other in waarom je je?
The first je is the subject ('you'), and the second je is the reflexive pronoun ('yourself'). They sit next to each other here because the verb zich voordoen requires a reflexive pronoun, and the word order of this subordinate clause places the pronoun right after the subject.
What is the exact meaning of voordoen in this context?
The reflexive verb zich voordoen als means 'to pretend to be' or 'to pass oneself off as'. The prefix voor is usually separated in main clauses, but here it stays attached to doen because it sits at the end of a subordinate clause alongside the modal verb moet.
Could I reverse the verbs at the end and say voordoen moet?
Yes, you can! In a subordinate clause with a modal verb and an infinitive, both verb orders (moet voordoen and voordoen moet) are grammatically correct in Dutch. The order moet voordoen (modal verb first) is slightly more common in spoken Dutch.
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