Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

When asking questions about nouns, you will often need to choose between asking for a specific item ("Which one?") and asking for a description or category ("What kind of?").

### Asking "What kind of": Wat voor (een)

When you want to ask about the category, type, or breed of something, use **wat voor een** (*what kind of a*). This phrase is used for singular countable nouns.

{{item:801315}}

{{item:801319}}

If you are asking about plural nouns (or uncountable nouns like water or sand), simply drop the **een** and just use **wat voor**.

{{item:801317}}

### Asking "Which": Welk(e)

When you want someone to specify a particular choice from a known group or set, use the Dutch equivalent of "which": **welke** or **welk**. The form you choose depends on the noun's gender and number:

- Use **welke** for singular *de*-words and all plural words.
- Use **welk** for singular *het*-words.

{{item:801328}}

{{item:801320}}

### Comparing the Two

To see the difference in action, compare asking for a description of a new object versus identifying a specific object that already exists.

{{item:801335}}

{{item:801334}}

Interrogative determiners (welke, wat voor een)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

determiner/pronoun

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular pronouns and 'to be' (ik ben, hij is)

The formal 'you' (u bent)

Definite articles (de, het)

Plural pronouns and 'to be' (wij zijn)

The verb 'to have' (hebben)

Basic word order

Numbers 1 to 10 (een, twee, drie)

Verb stems and the 'I' form (ik werk)

Long vowels in verb stems (maken, ik maak)

Short vowels in verb stems (zitten, ik zit)

Present tense singular (-t)

Present tense plural (-en)

Yes/no questions

Question words (wie, wat, waar)

Noun negation (geen)

Plural nouns (-en)

Plural nouns (-s)

Diminutives (-je)

Adjective modifiers (heel, erg, te)

Verb negation (niet)

Singular possessives (mijn, jouw, zijn, haar)

Plural and formal possessives (ons/onze, jullie, hun, uw)

This and these (deze, dit)

That and those (die, dat)

Asking which (welke, welk)

Numbers 11 to 20 (elf, twaalf, dertien...)

Tens and compound numbers (dertig, veertig...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (eerste, tweede...)

Telling time: hours and half hours (uur, half)

Telling time: quarters (kwart over, kwart voor)

Question words (hoeveel, waarom)

Irregular verbs (doen, gaan, staan, zien, komen)

Adjective endings (+e)

Adjectives with 'het' words

Prepositions of place (uit, bij)

Subject-verb inversion

Time before place

Modal verbs (willen, kunnen)

Modal verbs (moeten, mogen)

The verb bracket

Separable prefix verbs

The imperative mood (kom, luister)

Singular object pronouns (mij, jou, hem, haar)

Plural and formal object pronouns (ons, jullie, hen, u)

Reflexive verbs and pronouns (zich, me, je)

Position of negation (niet)

The present perfect tense with regular verbs (hebben gewerkt)

The present perfect tense with motion verbs (zijn gegaan)

Irregular past participles (gezien, gedaan)

The present continuous (zijn aan het)

There is / there are (er is, er zijn)

Unstressed there (er)

And, but, or (en, maar, of)

Because (want)

Months of the year

Prepositions of time (om, van ... tot)

Greetings and politeness

Conversational glue

Prepositions with days (op)

Prepositions with seasons (in)

Genitive of time ('s morgens, 's nachts)

Adverbs of frequency (altijd, vaak)

The future tense (gaan)

The future tense (zullen)

Separable verbs with auxiliary verbs

Apostrophe plurals ('-s)

Irregular plurals (-eren)

Complex diminutives (-pje, -etje, -kje)

Possessive 's (Jan's, vaders)

Indefinite pronouns (iets, niemand, alles)

Indefinite subject pronoun (je)

Reciprocal pronoun (elkaar)

Comparative adjectives (-er dan)

Comparatives with spelling change (-der)

Superlative adjectives (-st)

Irregular comparisons (beter, meer, minder)

Expressing preference (graag, liever, het liefst)

Equality comparisons (even ... als)

Fixed prepositions

That clauses (dat)

Because clauses (omdat)

If and when clauses (als)

Inversion after clauses

Separable verbs in clauses

Negation in clauses (niet)

Past tense of to be (was / waren)

Past tense of to have (had / hadden)

Question	Answer
what kind of (in 'wat voor')	wat voor
the pet	het huisdier
to adopt	adopteren
What kind of pet do you guys want to adopt?	Wat voor een huisdier willen jullie adopteren?
the shelter	het asiel
What kind of pets are there in the shelter?	Wat voor huisdieren zijn er in het asiel?
the rabbit	het konijn
What kind of rabbit is that?	Wat voor een konijn is dat?
Which rabbit shall we adopt?	Welk konijn zullen we adopteren?
Which shelter are you guys going to tomorrow?	Naar welk asiel gaan jullie morgen?
the breed	het ras
What breed is mother's dog?	Wat voor een ras is moeders hond?
Which breed is calm enough for our family?	Welk ras is rustig genoeg voor onze familie?
the tail	de staart
What kind of tail does that dog have?	Wat voor een staart heeft die hond?
to pet	aaien
Which cat are you trying to pet?	Welke kat probeer jij te aaien?
to walk (a pet)	uitlaten
Which dog are you going to walk?	Welke hond ga je uitlaten?
tame	tam
What kind of animals are usually tame?	Wat voor dieren zijn meestal tam?
the basket	de mand
Which basket is for the dog?	Welke mand is voor de hond?
What kind of basket shall we buy?	Wat voor een mand zullen we kopen?
Do not forget to walk the dog!	Vergeet niet de hond uit te laten!
The rabbit with the short tail is very tame.	Het konijn met de korte staart is heel tam.
May I pet father's tame bird?	Mag ik vaders tamme vogel aaien?