In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

to be

Breakdown of In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

• kan: can
• later: later
• in teenstelling met ...: in contrast to

Questions & Answers about In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

What does In teenstelling met mean, and is it a fixed expression?

Yes. In teenstelling met is a common expression meaning in contrast to or as opposed to.

It is made up of:

• in = in
• teenstelling = contrast / opposition
• met = with / to

So the whole phrase functions like one unit: in contrast to.

You will often see it at the beginning of a sentence to set up a comparison:

• In teenstelling met... = In contrast to...

Why does kan come before oordragsdatums?

Because Afrikaans uses verb-second word order in main clauses.

The sentence begins with the prepositional phrase In teenstelling met verkoopdatums. When something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb usually moves into the second position.

So the structure is:

• In teenstelling met verkoopdatums = first element
• kan = finite verb in second position
• oordragsdatums = subject
• later wees = rest of the verb phrase

A more basic word order would be:

• Oordragsdatums kan later wees.

But once the contrast phrase is placed first, kan must come before the subject:

• In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.