Breakdown of Hij heeft twee broers en drie zussen.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
en
and
hebben
to have
de broer
the brother
de zus
the sister
twee
two
drie
three
Questions & Answers about Hij heeft twee broers en drie zussen.
Do numbers like twee and drie change depending on the words that come after them?
No, unlike some other languages, Dutch numbers like twee (two) and drie (three) never change their form. They stay exactly the same whether they are describing brothers, sisters, masculine words, or feminine words.
Wait, is heeft the same verb as heb?
Yes! The dictionary form of the verb is hebben (to have). It is an irregular verb, which means it doesn't follow the normal spelling patterns. You use heb for I (ik heb), but for he, she, or it, it changes to heeft (hij heeft).
Why does broers end in -s for the plural instead of -en?
Why does the word zus get an extra 's' in zussen?
This is because of a very important Dutch spelling rule. The singular word is zus, which has a short 'u' sound. To keep that vowel sounding short when adding the plural -en ending, you have to double the final consonant. If you wrote zusen, the pronunciation of the 'u' would change to a long vowel.
Learn Hij heeft twee broers en drie zussen and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free