Breakdown of Hij moet stoppen met roken.
roken
to smoke
moeten
to have to, must
stoppen met
to stop (doing)
Questions & Answers about Hij moet stoppen met roken.
Why doesn't moet get an extra '-t' at the end for hij?
Moeten (must / to have to) is a modal verb, and these often have slightly irregular forms. For ik, jij, and hij, the present tense form is exactly the same: moet. Also, because the base form already ends in a 't', Dutch spelling rules say we don't add another one.
Why do we use the word met in this sentence?
In Dutch, the verb stoppen is paired with the preposition met when you talk about quitting an activity. While in English you just say 'stop smoking', in Dutch you literally say 'stop with smoking' (stoppen met roken).
English uses 'smoking', but roken is just the basic verb 'to smoke'. How does that work?
Dutch doesn't have an '-ing' ending to turn verbs into activities like English does. When you want to talk about an activity as a general concept, you simply use the full infinitive form of the verb. So roken translates to both 'to smoke' and 'smoking'.
I learned that the second verb goes at the end of the sentence. Why isn't it Hij moet met roken stoppen?
You can actually say Hij moet met roken stoppen! The rule about putting the second verb at the end is important, but there is an exception: phrases starting with a preposition (like met, in, or op) are allowed to be placed right after the final verb. Both word orders are correct, but Hij moet stoppen met roken is very common and sounds perfectly natural.
Learn Hij moet stoppen met roken and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free