Breakdown of Wij zijn verantwoordelijk voor het insect in de tuin.
de tuin
the garden
het insect
the insect
verantwoordelijk zijn voor
to be responsible for
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Questions & Answers about Wij zijn verantwoordelijk voor het insect in de tuin.
Why do we use voor after verantwoordelijk?
The adjective verantwoordelijk (responsible) has a fixed preposition, which is voor. Just like in English where you are "responsible for" something, in Dutch you are always verantwoordelijk voor something. This is a set combination you just have to memorize.
Verantwoordelijk is a massive word! Is there a trick to remembering it?
Yes! If you look closely at the middle of the word, you will see antwoord (answer). If you are responsible for something, you are "answerable" for it. The ver- prefix and -elijk suffix wrap around the root word to turn it into an adjective.
If I wanted to just say "We are responsible for it," would I say wij zijn verantwoordelijk voor het?
No, you cannot put a normal pronoun like het directly after a preposition like voor to mean "for it". Instead, Dutch uses a "pronominal adverb". You would use er and split it up: Wij zijn er verantwoordelijk voor (literally: We are there responsible for).
Is insect always a het word?
Yes, insect is a neuter noun, so it is always het insect in the singular. However, remember that if you talk about multiple insects in the garden, all plural nouns take de, so it would become de insecten.