Learn Hardcore Dutch: De familie komt naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren. - The family comes to the ceremony to congratulate her.

Even though in English you can sometimes say “The family are coming”, in Dutch you must use the singular verb with familie when it’s the subject.

Why is the pronoun haar used here? Why not zij / ze?

Haar is the object pronoun (“her”), while zij/ze is the subject pronoun (“she”).

Zij feliciteert haar. – She congratulates her.
- Zij = subject (“she”)
- haar = object (“her”)

In om haar te feliciteren, haar is the object of feliciteren (“to congratulate her”), so haar is the correct form.
Using zij here would be ungrammatical, just like “to congratulate she” in English is wrong.

Does haar refer to de familie or to some woman?

On its own, haar is ambiguous:

It can mean “her” (some specific woman or girl).
Historically, it can also be “its/her” referring back to a grammatically feminine noun (like de familie), but in modern speech that’s less common here.

In practice, a Dutch reader will almost automatically interpret:

De familie komt naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren.

as “The family comes to the ceremony to congratulate her” (some woman who is receiving something).
To make it clearly refer to the family, you’d normally rephrase:

De familie komt naar de uitreiking om zich te feliciteren. (odd meaning)
De familie komt naar de uitreiking om zichzelf te feliciteren. (they congratulate themselves – also odd)

So in natural context, haar here is understood as some female person, not the family.

Why is the structure om haar te feliciteren used? What does om … te + infinitive mean?

Om … te + infinitive expresses purpose and corresponds to English “in order to …” or simply “to …”:

Ik studeer hard om te slagen. – I study hard (in order) to pass.
Hij belt om een afspraak te maken. – He is calling to make an appointment.

So:

om haar te feliciteren

means “to congratulate her / in order to congratulate her”.

The whole sentence is therefore:

De familie komt naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren.
The family comes to the ceremony to congratulate her.

Could you say De familie komt haar feliciteren instead? Is that correct?

Yes, that is also correct and very natural:

De familie komt haar feliciteren.

Dutch often allows a bare infinitive after verbs of motion, like komen, gaan:

Ik ga boodschappen doen. – I’m going (to) do the shopping.
Ze komt werken. – She’s coming to work.

Meaning-wise, De familie komt haar feliciteren and
De familie komt naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren are similar, but:

naar de uitreiking adds a specific destination (“to the ceremony”), and
om haar te feliciteren makes the purpose explicit in a more structured way.

Why is te feliciteren at the end of the clause? Could it go earlier?

In Dutch, in an infinitive clause introduced by om, the infinitive normally goes to the end of that clause:

om haar te feliciteren (not om te feliciteren haar)

General pattern:

om + (objects/other information) + te + infinitive

Examples:

om het rapport te lezen – to read the report
om hem morgen te helpen – to help him tomorrow

So om haar te feliciteren has the natural word order for Dutch; moving te feliciteren earlier would sound wrong.

What exactly does uitreiking mean here?

Uitreiking literally means “handing out” or “awarding”, and in practice refers to a ceremony where something is given. Common combinations:

diploma-uitreiking – graduation ceremony
prijsuitreiking – award ceremony
medaille-uitreiking – medal ceremony

So naar de uitreiking is “to the ceremony” where, for example, a diploma, prize, or certificate is being given.

Why is it naar de uitreiking and not another preposition like voor or bij?

Naar is the normal preposition to express movement towards a place:

naar school – to school
naar huis – (to) home
naar de uitreiking – to the ceremony

Alternatives have different nuances:

voor de uitreiking – “before the ceremony” (time) or “for the ceremony” (for the sake of it)
bij de uitreiking – “at the ceremony” (location, but not movement)

Here we want movement to the event, so naar is the correct and natural choice.

Why is it de familie and de uitreiking, and not het familie / het uitreiking?

Dutch nouns have grammatical gender:

de-words (common gender)
het-words (neuter)

Unfortunately, you usually have to memorize which article goes with which noun:

de familie – always with de
de uitreiking – also a de-word

There is no simple rule that would give you het familie or het uitreiking; those forms are just incorrect. Dictionaries usually list nouns with their article: de familie, de uitreiking.

What is the difference between familie and gezin in Dutch?

Both can translate to “family”, but they’re not the same:

het gezin = the people you live with in one household: parents + children.
- Ik heb een groot gezin. – I have a big (immediate) family.
de familie = a wider group of relatives: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.
- De hele familie komt op bezoek. – The whole (extended) family is coming to visit.

In De familie komt naar de uitreiking, it suggests a larger group of relatives, not just parents and children from one household.

Why is it feliciteren without met? Don’t you normally say iemand feliciteren met …?

The full pattern is:

iemand feliciteren (met iets)
– “to congratulate someone (on something)”

Examples:

Ik feliciteer je met je diploma. – I congratulate you on your diploma.
Ze feliciteren hem met zijn promotie. – They congratulate him on his promotion.

In your sentence, the reason is obvious from context (for example, the diploma or prize being given at the ceremony), so Dutch can omit the met + reason:

om haar te feliciteren – to congratulate her (on that achievement)

It’s perfectly natural to leave met … out when it’s clear what the achievement is.

Could we use gaat instead of komt? What is the difference between komen and gaan here?

Both are possible, but they have different perspectives:

De familie komt naar de uitreiking…
– The speaker is at (or mentally located at) the ceremony; the family is coming towards the speaker’s location.
De familie gaat naar de uitreiking…
– The speaker is elsewhere, talking about the family moving away from their current place to the ceremony.

In English, we often blur this and just say “The family is going to the ceremony,” but Dutch is more precise with komen (movement towards “here”) vs gaan (movement away from “here”). Both work, depending on where you imagine the speaker.

Why is it naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren and not om haar te feliciteren naar de uitreiking?

Dutch tends to keep destination phrases (like naar de uitreiking) close to the main verb, and then put purpose clauses at the end:

De familie komt naar de uitreiking om haar te feliciteren.

If you say:

De familie komt om haar te feliciteren naar de uitreiking.

this sounds awkward and almost unnatural, because you split “comes to the ceremony” and its destination.

Preferred order:

Main clause: De familie komt
Place / destination: naar de uitreiking
Purpose: om haar te feliciteren

So the original word order is the natural, idiomatic one.