Ik kan de kritiek niet weerleggen.

I cannot refute the criticism.

Breakdown of Ik kan de kritiek niet weerleggen.

• ik: I
• niet: not
• kunnen: can
• de kritiek: the criticism
• weerleggen: to refute

Questions & Answers about Ik kan de kritiek niet weerleggen.

What is the function of kan in this sentence?

Kan is the first-person singular present of the modal verb kunnen, which expresses ability or possibility. Here it means “I am able to” or “I can.”

Why is niet placed before weerleggen rather than after?

In Dutch, niet negates the nearest verb or verb phrase. Since you’re denying your ability to “refute,” niet precedes weerleggen. If you had a longer adverbial phrase, niet might shift, but with a simple modal + infinitive it sits right before the infinitive.

Why don’t we use geen instead of niet to express the negation?

Geen negates a noun phrase without a definite article or with an indefinite article. Here de kritiek is a definite noun phrase, and you’re negating the action (kan … weerleggen), not the noun itself. Thus you use niet.

Why is it de kritiek and not het kritiek or een kritiek?

Kritiek is a common-gender noun in Dutch, so its definite article is de. Moreover, kritiek is usually an uncountable (mass) noun in this sense, so you don’t pair it with een here.

What does weerleggen exactly mean, and are there synonyms?

Weerleggen means “to refute,” “to disprove” or “to counter an argument.” A close synonym is ontkrachten, also “to disprove,” but ontkrachten often sounds a bit more formal.

Is weerleggen a separable verb? If so, why isn’t weer at the end?

Weerleggen is an inseparable-prefix verb. In Dutch, inseparable prefixes like weer- stay attached in main clauses. You only split verbs when they have separable prefixes (e.g. opbellen → “Ik bel je op.”).

Could you omit kan and say Ik niet de kritiek weerleggen?

No. Dutch main clauses require a finite verb (here, kan). Without it you’d have no proper conjugated verb, so the sentence would be ungrammatical.

Can you replace weerleggen with tegenspreken?

You can say Ik kan de kritiek niet tegenspreken, but tegenspreken means “to contradict someone” rather than “to dismantle their argument.” It’s slightly less focused on disproving facts and more on expressing disagreement.