Breakdown of We zien drie honden en vier katten.
en
and
de hond
the dog
de kat
the cat
zien
to see
drie
three
vier
four
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We zien drie honden en vier katten.
Do the numbers drie and vier change their spelling to match the plural nouns?
No, just like in English, cardinal numbers like drie (three) and vier (four) are invariable. They don't get an extra plural ending themselves, even though the nouns they are counting are plural.
Why does katten have a double 't', when the singular word is just kat?
This is due to a very common Dutch spelling rule. The 'a' in kat is a short vowel. If we just added -en to make katen, the 'a' would change to a long vowel sound. To lock in that short 'a' sound, we have to double the consonant 't' before adding -en.
How do we make nouns like hond plural in Dutch?
Most Dutch plurals are formed simply by adding -en to the end of the singular noun. So, hond (dog) becomes honden (dogs).
Why is the verb form zien used here instead of a conjugated form like ziet?
Because the subject is we, which is plural. In the Dutch present tense, plural subjects (we, jullie, zij) use the full infinitive (dictionary) form of the verb, which almost always ends in -en.
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