Learn Dutch: Het kind eet een appel. - The child eats an apple.

In a basic Dutch sentence, the verb comes in the second position. Here, the subject Het kind is the first piece of information, so the verb eet comes immediately after it in position two. The object een appel follows the verb.

Does eet mean 'eats' or 'is eating'?

It means both! Dutch usually doesn't use a separate '-ing' form for actions happening right now. So Het kind eet translates to both 'The child eats' and 'The child is eating' depending on the situation.

Why do we use Het for the child instead of De?

Dutch has two words for 'the': de and het. Every noun is assigned one or the other. Kind (child) happens to be a 'het-word', so we must say het kind. When you learn a new Dutch noun, it is highly recommended to learn its 'the' word along with it.

Because of the double 'e', is een pronounced with a long 'a' sound?

No, the word een (meaning 'a' or 'an') is pronounced with a soft, unstressed 'uh' sound, much like the 'a' in the English word 'about'. You only pronounce it with a long vowel sound if it is written with accent marks (één), which means the number 'one'.