Learn Hardcore Dutch: Wandelen helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen voordat zij gaat slapen. - Walking helps her brain relax before she goes to sleep.

Wandelen is the infinitive form of the verb wandelen (to walk), but here it functions as a noun-like subject of the sentence, similar to English “Walking helps…”.

Dutch often uses the bare infinitive as a subject:

Wandelen is gezond. – Walking is healthy.
Roken is slecht. – Smoking is bad.
Studeren kost tijd. – Studying takes time.

So the structure is:

Wandelen (subject)
helpt (finite verb)
haar hersenen te ontspannen (object + infinitive clause)

It’s capitalized simply because it’s the first word of the sentence, not because it’s a noun.

Why is it wandelen and not het wandelen?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

Wandelen helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen…
General habitual activity, like English “Walking helps…”. This is the most natural here.
Het wandelen helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen…
Literally “The walking…” – this sounds more like that specific activity of walking (for example, a particular walking routine that has been mentioned before). It’s grammatically correct but feels more heavy/specific.

In everyday Dutch, when talking about a general activity in subject position, people usually omit “het”:

Lezen maakt me moe. – Reading makes me tired.
Zwemmen is leuk. – Swimming is fun.

What is the difference between wandelen and lopen here?

Both verbs involve walking, but they’re used differently:

wandelen
Walking in a calm, often recreational way – like going for a walk, a stroll, or a hike. That fits very well with relaxation.
lopen
More neutral “to walk / to go on foot” (movement, not necessarily relaxing or recreational). It can also mean “to run” in sports contexts (e.g. hij loopt de 100 meter).

In a sentence about relaxation before sleep, wandelen is the natural choice, because it suggests a leisurely walk, not just moving from A to B.

Why is it haar hersenen instead of just haar brein or singular “hersene(n)”?

Several points:

Hersenen is almost always plural in Dutch
- Standard form: de hersenen – the brain
- You don’t normally use a singular “de hersene” in everyday language.
Hersenen vs brein
- hersenen = neutral, common word for “brain” in general or in a biological/medical sense.
- brein = also “brain”, but can feel slightly more colloquial or sometimes more metaphorical (zijn brein krakt – “his brain is cracking/working hard”).
Hersenen is grammatically plural, but often translated as singular “brain”:
- haar hersenen = literally her brains, but normally translated her brain.

So haar hersenen is the standard, natural way to say “her brain” in this context.

Why is hersenen plural in Dutch when English uses singular “brain”?

Dutch treats hersenen like English treats “brains” in plural, but in meaning it usually corresponds to English “brain”:

Mijn hersenen doen pijn. – literally My brains hurt, but we would translate as My brain hurts.

It’s just a lexical difference between the languages:

Dutch: de hersenen (plural form, one organ)
English: the brain (singular form, one organ)

You have to memorize that hersenen is always plural grammatically, even when it refers to just one brain.

Why is there a te before ontspannen (te ontspannen)?

Te is used before an infinitive in many constructions, similar to “to” + verb in English:

proberen te slapen – to try to sleep
vergeten te bellen – to forget to call
helpen iets te doen – to help to do something

In this sentence:

ontspannen is an infinitive
te ontspannen is the infinitive phrase “to relax”
helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen = helps (her brain) to relax

Without te, helpt haar hersenen ontspannen is not standard Dutch in this structure. The te + infinitive form is required here after helpen when it introduces an infinitive clause like this.

Could we also say “Wandelen helpt om haar hersenen te ontspannen…”? When do we use om te?

Yes, you can say:

Wandelen helpt haar (om) haar hersenen te ontspannen voordat zij gaat slapen.

Here:

om is optional.
Many speakers leave om out after helpen.

General rules:

om te + infinitive often expresses purpose:
- Hij leest een boek om beter Nederlands te leren.
  He reads a book (in order) to learn Dutch better.
With certain verbs, om can be omitted:
- proberen (om) te…
- vergeten (om) te…
- helpen (om) te…

So in this sentence both:

helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen
and
helpt haar om haar hersenen te ontspannen

are grammatically correct. The version without “om” is more concise and very common.

Why is it haar hersenen te ontspannen and not zich te ontspannen?

Both are possible, but they say slightly different things:

haar hersenen te ontspannen
Literally: “to relax her brain”.
The direct object is haar hersenen.
zich te ontspannen
Literally: “to relax herself” / “to relax”.
zich is a reflexive pronoun referring back to haar (her).

So you could say:

Wandelen helpt haar te ontspannen voordat zij gaat slapen.
(Walking helps her relax before she goes to sleep.)

Wandelen helpt haar hersenen te ontspannen voordat zij gaat slapen.
(Walking helps her brain relax before she goes to sleep.)

The original sentence chooses the more specific image of her brain relaxing, instead of her whole self.

What is happening grammatically in “voordat zij gaat slapen”?

Voordat zij gaat slapen is a subordinate clause introduced by voordat (before).

Structure:

voordat (subordinating conjunction)
zij (subject)
gaat slapen (verb cluster: finite verb gaat
- infinitive slapen)

Key points:

In subordinate clauses, the finite verb normally goes to the end:
- …voordat zij slaapt. – literally before she sleeps.
But if there is an auxiliary or semi-auxiliary like gaan, the verbs appear together at the end as a cluster. The modern standard order is usually:
- voordat zij gaat slapen
  (finite auxiliary + infinitive)

The more old-fashioned/poetic form voordat zij slapen gaat also exists, but sounds literary. In everyday Dutch, “voordat zij gaat slapen” is natural and correct.

Why is it “voordat zij gaat slapen” and not simply “voordat zij slaapt”?

Both forms are grammatically possible:

voordat zij slaapt – literally before she sleeps
voordat zij gaat slapen – before she goes to sleep / before she is going to sleep

The difference is nuance:

voordat zij slaapt sounds more like a general time frame (before she is in the state of sleeping). It’s correct but a bit less idiomatic in everyday speech here.
voordat zij gaat slapen focuses on the moment of going to sleep, which matches English “before she goes to sleep” and is what people usually say in this context.

So “gaat slapen” is more natural in spoken and written modern Dutch when describing bedtime routines.

Why does the sentence use zij instead of ze?

Zij and ze are both forms of the third-person singular feminine pronoun “she”:

zij = stressed form (used for emphasis, or more formal)
ze = unstressed form (more common in everyday speech)

In this sentence:

voordat zij gaat slapen is a bit more formal or neutral.
In casual speech or informal writing, you’d more often see:
- voordat ze gaat slapen.

So:

zij – She (with emphasis, or careful/neutral style)
ze – she (weak, unstressed, very frequent in conversation)

Both are grammatically correct; it’s a stylistic choice.

Could the word order be “voordat zij slapen gaat” instead of “voordat zij gaat slapen”?

Yes, grammatically it’s possible:

voordat zij gaat slapen
voordat zij slapen gaat

Both orders of the verb cluster (gaat slapen / slapen gaat) are accepted in Dutch subordinate clauses.

However:

voordat zij gaat slapen is the modern, everyday order.
voordat zij slapen gaat sounds old-fashioned, literary, or poetic.

So you’ll nearly always hear and read “voordat zij gaat slapen” in normal contemporary Dutch.