Degree & Result (zo ... dat, te ... om te)
Degree & Result (zo ... dat, te ... om te)
To say something was so extreme that a result followed, Dutch splits a frame across the sentence: zo ... dat for a positive result, te ... om te for one that never happened. The second frame uses te twice with two different meanings.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
zo + adjective + dat introduces a real consequence
Het was zo koud dat de rivier bevroor.
It was so cold that the river froze.
The pattern matches English 'so ... that' precisely, with the usual difference that dat sends its verb to the end: dat de rivier bevroor. With a noun rather than an adjective, Dutch uses zo'n or zulke: zo'n drukte dat ..., zulke problemen dat ... . Formal writing offers dermate ... dat and zodanig ... dat for the same meaning.
te + adjective + om te for a result that did not follow
Het was te koud om te zwemmen.
It was too cold to swim.
Here te means 'too' and the second te is the infinitive marker — two identical words doing unrelated jobs in one sentence. If the subject of the infinitive differs from the main subject, Dutch adds voor: Het was te koud voor de kinderen om buiten te spelen. English handles this with 'for ... to', so the structures line up once you see past the doubled te.
genoeg and voldoende follow what they modify
Hij is oud genoeg om te rijden. Er is voldoende tijd om het af te maken.
He's old enough to drive. There's enough time to finish it.
genoeg comes after the adjective it modifies — oud genoeg, groot genoeg — which is the same order as English 'old enough'. Before a noun, though, Dutch prefers voldoende or genoeg placed either before or after: genoeg tijd or tijd genoeg, with the postposed version slightly more emphatic. Both then take om ... te for the consequence.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- so ... that
- English
- such a ... that
- English
- too ... to
- English
- enough
- English
- sufficient
- English
- to such an extent
- English
- such / in such a way
- English
- hardly
- English
- to freeze
- English
- to finish
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