Breakdown of Ik neem zeep mee om mijn handen te wassen.
ik
I
om
for
mijn
my
meenemen
to take along
wassen
to wash
de hand
the hand
de zeep
the soap
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Questions & Answers about Ik neem zeep mee om mijn handen te wassen.
What does the particle mee at the end of Ik neem zeep mee mean?
It’s part of the separable verb meenemen (“to take along”). In a main‐clause Dutch sentence the verb splits: neem appears in the second position and the particle mee goes to the end.
Why is there no article (like de or een) before zeep?
Here zeep is used as a mass noun (soap in general), so you omit the article when you don’t specify an amount. If you wanted a bar of soap, you could say een stuk zeep.
How does om mijn handen te wassen express purpose?
Dutch uses the om … te + infinitive construction to show purpose. You place om before the object/pronoun, then te, then the main verb (wassen). The entire clause describes why you’re taking the soap.
Why is there te only before wassen and not before nemen?
Te marks the infinitive in subordinate (purpose) clauses. In the main clause (Ik neem…), the verb neem isn’t preceded by te. Only the verb in the om … te clause gets te.
Why is it mijn handen in the plural?
Because you normally wash both of your hands. Dutch, like English, uses the plural when you mean two hands, so handen instead of hand.
Could you place om mijn handen te wassen at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes. If you start with the purpose clause, you trigger inversion in the main clause: Om mijn handen te wassen neem ik zeep mee.
Why isn’t there a reflexive pronoun before wassen (e.g. “Ik was me mijn handen”)?
You use a reflexive verb when the subject performs an action on itself without naming the body part. Here you specify the object (handen), so you simply say handen wassen without a reflexive pronoun.