Breekbare glazen pakken we als laatste uit.

We will unpack fragile glasses last.

Breakdown of Breekbare glazen pakken we als laatste uit.

• we: we
• laatste: last
• als: as
• het glas: the glass

Questions & Answers about Breekbare glazen pakken we als laatste uit.

Why does the sentence start with Breekbare glazen instead of we?

Because Dutch main clauses often put the element you want to emphasize first.

The more neutral order would be:

We pakken breekbare glazen als laatste uit.

By moving Breekbare glazen to the front, the speaker highlights them, as if saying:

Fragile glasses, we unpack those last.

This fronting also causes inversion, so we comes after the finite verb:

• Breekbare glazen = first position
• pakken = finite verb in second position
• we = subject after the verb

This is a very common Dutch word order pattern.

Why is it pakken we ... uit instead of uitpakken we?

Because uitpakken is a separable verb.

The full verb is uitpakken = to unpack, but in a main clause the prefix uit usually separates from the verb:

• infinitive: uitpakken
• main clause: pakken ... uit

So:

• We pakken de dozen uit. = We unpack the boxes.
• Breekbare glazen pakken we als laatste uit.

This is normal Dutch separable-verb behavior.

What exactly is breekbare here?