Breakdown of We wonen in een klein huis.
een
a/an
het huis
the house
klein
small
in
in
wonen
to live
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We wonen in een klein huis.
Why does the verb wonen end in -en here?
Because the subject is we (we). In Dutch, all plural subjects (we, you plural, they) use the full infinitive form of the verb, which usually ends in -en. The shorter stem form woon is only used for singular subjects like ik (I).
If the full verb is wonen, why is the ik-form spelled with two O's (woon)?
This is because of Dutch spelling rules about vowel length. In wonen, the O is long because it ends a syllable (wo-nen). When we make the stem (the ik-form), we drop the -en. To keep that same long O sound before the final consonant N, we must double the vowel to make woon.
Why is the word for small klein here instead of kleine?
Most adjectives in Dutch get an extra -e at the end. However, huis is a het-word (het huis). When a het-word is used with the word een (a), the adjective in front of it does not get the -e. That is why it is een klein huis and not een kleine huis.
Can I use wij instead of we in this sentence?
Yes, you can say Wij wonen in een klein huis. We is just the unstressed version of wij. You use we for normal, everyday statements, and wij when you want to put special emphasis on who is living there (for example, WE live in a small house, but THEY live in a big one).
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