Breakdown of Zij is in staat om de klus te klaren.
de klus
the chore/the job
in staat zijn om
to be able to
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Dutch grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Zij is in staat om de klus te klaren.
Since this lesson is about passive potential, could we say De klus is te klaren?
Yes! That uses the passive potential structure from this lesson, meaning "The job can be done" or "The job is doable." The sentence here shows the active equivalent: how to explicitly say that a specific person is capable of doing it.
Is there a simpler way to express this capability using kunnen (can)?
Absolutely. You could just say Zij kan de klus klaren (She can get the job done). The phrase in staat zijn om is a bit more formal and strongly emphasizes that she has the specific capability, capacity, or resources to do it.
Why do we need om here? Could I just say Zij is in staat de klus te klaren?
The expression in staat zijn (to be capable) practically always pairs with om ... te to introduce the action. It acts as a bridge. While dropping om is technically possible in very formal written Dutch, standard everyday Dutch almost always uses the full om [details] te [verb] structure.
What does klaren mean on its own, and why use it for a job?
Literally, klaren means "to clear" or "to clarify" (like clearing the air or making a liquid clear). However, de klus klaren is a very common fixed idiom meaning "to get the job done" or "to pull it off". You will almost always see klaren paired with klus in this context.