Word
Het kind heeft een probleem.
Meaning
The child has a problem.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het kind heeft een probleem.
een
a/an
het kind
the child
hebben
to have
het probleem
the problem
Questions & Answers about Het kind heeft een probleem.
Why do we use heeft here instead of heb?
The word heeft is the form of the verb hebben (to have) used for he, she, and it. Because het kind (the child) acts as an it (third-person singular), we use heeft. The form heb is only used with ik (I).
Why is it het kind and not de kind?
Dutch has two words for the English word the: de and het. You use het for neuter nouns and de for masculine and feminine nouns. The word kind is a neuter noun, so it always takes het. It is best to memorize nouns with their article so you always know which one to use.
Does een probleem mean one problem or a problem?
In this sentence it means a problem. The word een is the word for a or an and is pronounced with a soft uh sound. When it specifically means the number one, it is usually written with accents as één and pronounced with a long ay sound.
Why does the word probleem have two 'e's?
In Dutch, double vowels are used to keep a vowel sound long when the syllable ends in a consonant. The ee in probleem makes a long ay sound. If it were spelled with one 'e', it would sound like the short 'e' in the English word pen.