Breakdown of De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst hardop lezen.
Questions & Answers about De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst hardop lezen.
What does laat mean here — is it “lets,” “has,” or “makes”?
Dutch laten + person + infinitive is a causative construction. It can mean:
- allows/lets (permission)
- has/makes (causation/instruction)
In a classroom context, De lerares laat ons … lezen most naturally means “The teacher has us read / makes us read.” If you want to express clear permission, you can also use mogen: We mogen de woordenlijst hardop lezen.
Why is lezen in the infinitive and at the end?
Do I need te before lezen?
No. With laten, you use a bare infinitive: … laat ons … lezen (not: te lezen). Contrast with verbs like dwingen or proberen, which take te:
- De lerares dwingt ons de woordenlijst hardop te lezen.
Where can hardop go, and what does it modify?
Hardop is an adverb meaning “out loud,” modifying lezen. Common placements:
- De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst hardop lezen. (neutral, very common)
- De lerares laat ons hardop de woordenlijst lezen. (also fine; slightly more focus on “out loud”) Saying … lezen hardop is only possible as an afterthought with a pause (for emphasis), and is less neutral.
What is ons doing here? Could it be we/wij?
Ons is the object pronoun “us.” You cannot use we/wij here because those are subject forms. Compare:
- Wij lezen de woordenlijst hardop. (we = subject)
- De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst hardop lezen. (us = object)
If it’s “them” instead of “us,” is it hen or hun?
Standard written Dutch uses hen as the object after laten:
- De lerares laat hen de woordenlijst hardop lezen. Using hun here is nonstandard; hun is used as an indirect object without a preposition (and as a possessive). Colloquially you’ll also hear ze.
Why are there two objects (ons and de woordenlijst), and which comes first?
Causative laten often has two objects: the person who does the action (ons) and the thing acted upon (de woordenlijst). Dutch prefers the person (especially if it’s a pronoun) before the thing:
- De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst … (natural)
- De lerares laat de woordenlijst ons … (odd/unusual)
Why de with lerares and woordenlijst? Why not het?
Both lerares and woordenlijst are common gender (de-words), so they take de:
- de lerares (“the [female] teacher”)
- de woordenlijst (“the word list”) Indefinite: een woordenlijst. Note: woord is a het-word (het woord), but the head of the compound woordenlijst is lijst (a de-word), so the compound is also a de-word.
Why is woordenlijst one word?
Could I use voorlezen or oplezen instead of lezen?
Different nuances:
- lezen: read (silent or aloud). With hardop, you read aloud yourself.
- voorlezen: read aloud to someone (the reader and listener are different).
- oplezen: read out from a text (often suggests “reading it out verbatim,” sometimes a bit stiff).
- For reciting from memory, use opzeggen.
Your sentence means the students themselves are reading aloud, so lezen
- hardop is right:
- De lerares leest ons de woordenlijst voor. = The teacher reads the word list to us.
Can this also mean “The teacher lets/allows us to read the word list out loud”?
Yes, context can make laten mean “allow.” But in a school setting, laat ons … lezen typically means “has us read.” To express permission unambiguously, use mogen or toestaan:
- We mogen de woordenlijst hardop lezen.
- De lerares staat ons toe de woordenlijst hardop te lezen.
How do I say it in the past or in the perfect?
- Simple past: De lerares liet ons de woordenlijst hardop lezen.
- Present perfect: De lerares heeft ons de woordenlijst hardop laten lezen. With causative laten followed by another verb, use laten (not gelaten) in the verb cluster: heeft … laten lezen.
What happens in a subordinate clause?
All verbs go to the end, and the auxiliary comes before the main infinitive:
- … dat de lerares ons de woordenlijst hardop laat lezen.
- … omdat de lerares ons de woordenlijst hardop laat lezen.
How would you negate it or say “not out loud”?
Place niet before what you’re negating:
- Not out loud: De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst niet hardop lezen.
- Not read at all: De lerares laat ons de woordenlijst niet lezen.
- Contrastive (not the word list, but something else): De lerares laat ons niet de woordenlijst hardop lezen, maar de tekst.
Pronunciation tips?
- De: schwa, like “duh.”
- lerares: lay-rah-RES (stress on the last syllable).
- laat: long aa, like “laht.”
- ons: short o as in “boss,” n-s clearly pronounced.
- woordenlijst: WOOR-den-lijst (oo like in “door,” ij like English “ay” in “day”).
- hardop: HAR-dop; the d may sound like t, so it often sounds like “hartop.”
- lezen: LAY-zen.
Is Laat ons … ever used to mean “Let’s …”?
Can I use maken instead of laten (e.g., “De lerares maakt ons … lezen”)?
No. Maken + bare infinitive is not used like English “make someone do.” Use:
- laten for neutral causation/instruction: De lerares laat ons … lezen.
- dwingen for forcing (with te): De lerares dwingt ons de woordenlijst hardop te lezen.
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