Ik ga om elf uur slapen.

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Breakdown of Ik ga om elf uur slapen.

• gaan: to go
• slapen: to sleep
• het uur: the hour

Questions & Answers about Ik ga om elf uur slapen.

Why does Dutch use ga here? Is it literally I go sleep?

Yes, literally it looks like I go sleep, but in Dutch gaan + infinitive is a very common pattern.

In Ik ga om elf uur slapen, ga slapen means:

• I’m going to sleep
• I’m going to go to sleep
• sometimes, in natural English, simply I’m going to bed at eleven

So gaan here does not mainly emphasize physical movement. It often expresses a planned or near-future action.

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Why is slapen at the end of the sentence?

Because Dutch often puts the main infinitive at the end when it is combined with another verb.

Here:

• Ik = subject
• ga = finite verb
• om elf uur = time expression
• slapen = infinitive

This gives:

Ik ga om elf uur slapen.

That final position for the infinitive is very normal in Dutch after verbs like:

• gaan
• kunnen
• moeten
• willen

For example:

• Ik ga werken.
• Ik moet leren.
• Ik wil eten.

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