Breakdown of De gebeurtenis blijkt onverwacht te zijn.
onverwacht
unexpected
de gebeurtenis
the event (occurrence)
blijken te
to turn out to
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Questions & Answers about De gebeurtenis blijkt onverwacht te zijn.
Why is it blijkt onverwacht te zijn instead of just blijkt onverwacht?
The verb blijken (to turn out / to appear) usually pairs with a te + infinitive construction when describing a state. You can think of blijkt ... te zijn as the exact equivalent of the English 'turns out ... to be'. While you can sometimes drop te zijn in casual speech, keeping it is standard and sounds more complete.
Why doesn't onverwacht have a ge- at the beginning, like ongeverwacht?
The word onverwacht is made from the negative prefix on- (un-) and the past participle of verwachten (to expect). Because verwachten already starts with the inseparable prefix ver-, it never gets a ge- in its past participle form. So, the base participle is just verwacht, and adding the negative prefix makes it onverwacht.
How do I know whether to use de or het with gebeurtenis?
Nouns ending in the suffix -enis are almost always de words. This suffix is used to turn verbs into nouns (here, from gebeuren, meaning to happen). Another common example you might know is de betekenis (the meaning).
Since this lesson is about abstract concepts, how would I say 'the unexpected' using the word in this sentence?