Breakdown of Ze drinkt water.
zij
she
drinken
to drink
het water
the water
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze drinkt water.
Is the word order always Subject-Verb-Object in Dutch like in this sentence?
In a basic statement like this one, yes! Dutch uses a rule called Verb Second. This means the working verb (drinkt) must be the second piece of information in the sentence. Here, the subject (Ze) is first, the verb is second, and the object (water) is third, exactly like in English.
I learned that ze can mean either 'she' or 'they'. How do we know it means 'she' here?
You can tell by looking at the verb! If ze meant 'they', the plural verb form would be used (Ze drinken water). Because the verb has the singular -t ending (drinkt), we know ze means 'she' in this sentence.
Could I use zij instead of ze here?
Yes, you could say Zij drinkt water. Ze is the normal, unstressed word you will hear most of the time. You only use zij if you want to put special emphasis on who is doing the action (for example: she is drinking water, not him).
Why is there no word for 'the' or 'some' before water?
Just like in English, uncountable liquids like water do not need an article when you are talking about them generally. You can simply say Ze drinkt water to mean 'She drinks water'.