Word
Die lijn helpt mij om goed te rekenen.
Meaning
That line helps me to calculate well.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Die lijn helpt mij om goed te rekenen.
What is die doing before lijn, and why can’t I just say de lijn?
die is a demonstrative determiner meaning that. It replaces the definite article de, so you cannot use de at the same time. If you meant “this line”, you’d use deze lijn; die lijn is more like “that line.”
Why is mij used instead of me here?
Both mij and me are object pronouns meaning me. mij is the full (stressed) form and is common in writing or for emphasis, while me is the unstressed (colloquial) form. In speech, you’ll often hear me, but mij is perfectly correct and slightly more formal.
Why do we have om goed te rekenen? What are om and te doing?
This is the Dutch infinitive construction om … te + verb, equivalent to in order to + verb. Here:
- om introduces the clause
- te marks the infinitive rekenen
You need both; without om, the clause lacks its introducer, and without te, the verb wouldn’t be marked as an infinitive.