# a potential answer is proposed



## Mieka

De vragen zijn problemen die ingestuurd worden door het lezerspubliek en daarna een reactie en *voorgesteld oplossing wordt gegeven door de schrijver van de rubriek*. 

Hello everyone,

My teacher marked the above sentence as wrong, he said that 'wordt' is incorrectly conjugated, and 'voorgesteld' is incorrect.

Should it be

"... voorgestelde oplossing word gegeven door ..."

Thanks a lot,


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## petoe

Misschien kun je het beter herformuleren:
... en daarna wordt door de schrijver van de rubriek een reactie gegeven en een oplossing voorgesteld.

Wordt is alleszins met dt, al zou ik zelf de zin liever actief maken: 
en daarna zal de schrijver een reactie geven en een oplossing voorstellen.


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## Peterdg

Could you say in English what exactly you want to say in Dutch? Petoe's suggestions are correct but I'm not really sure that it is what you want to say.


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## Mieka

"The questions consist of problems sent in by the readers of the magazine, and then a potential answer is proposed by the writer of the column" (talking about agony aunts)

My teacher hasn't really pointed out that the sentence is bad, but it does read clumsily to me. He's specifically highlighted 'voorgesteld' as incorrect but I don't understand why.

Dankjewel petoe, dat is precies wat ik wou schrijven! En ja het klinkt wel beter in actief.


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## YellowOnline

I would translate it as follows:

_"De vragen bestaan uit problemen [1] ingestuurd door lezers van het weekblad [2] en vervolgens [3] wordt een eventueel antwoord voorgesteld [4] door de schrijver [5] van de column [6]."_

Some explanations: 
1. Even though I'm not a big fan of the construction "De vragen bestaan uit problemen [...]", it is still easier to understand than "De vragen zijn problemen [...]". Note that I also dropped the auxiliary verb, which isn't needed and not used in the English version either ("are being sent in" <-> "are sent in"). 
2. Personally, I would avoid the loanword _magazine_ in favour of _weekblad_ (a weekly) or _maandblad_ (a monthly).
3. I chose _vervolgens_ ("subsequently") for stylistic reasons.
4. Nothing wrong with _voorgesteld_, but not in the way is was used. My construction is closest to the original. Just _eventueel_ could be changed according to taste (e.g. _mogelijk_ or _potentieel_).
5. Instead of _schrijver_ you could also say _auteur_, but then I would drop the rest of the sentence, i.e. full stop directly after that. A matter of personal taste, again.
6. A _rubriek_ and a _column_ are not the same. A _rubriek _is a subsection of a newspaper or magazine, whereas a _column _is a personal commentary from a journalist. The correct Dutch word would be _cursiefje_ actually, but that word has all but disappeared. On a side note, _rubriek_ is a loanword too (from French) replacing the Dutch _afdeling_ ("section").


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## Mieka

@Yellowonline Thank you, a very informative set of responses. I think my teacher meant to highlight the sentence as a whole, and instead only highlighted voorgesteld by accident. It makes a lot more sense now. 

Thanks a lot everyone, the sentence has become a lot clearer I was struggling for ages on how to reword it!


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## ThomasK

Just one note regarding Yo's interesting comments, concerning #4 in particular. Is it really necessary to add an adj. when referring to "suggesting answers"/ "'antwoorden voorstellen'" ? Any answer is possible, of course any suggestion is only one possibility - that is typical of proposals, I'd say. This looks like a pleonasm in many respects...


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## YellowOnline

ThomasK said:


> Just one note regarding Yo's interesting comments, concerning #4 in particular. Is it really necessary to add an adj. when referring to "suggesting answers"/ "'antwoorden voorstellen'" ? Any answer is possible, of course any suggestion is only one possibility - that is typical of proposals, I'd say. This looks like a pleonasm in many respects...



"A potential answer is proposed" could indeed as well be rephrased as "an answer is proposed" - and in translation too obviously. Good point.


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