Learn Dutch: We zitten op het bed. - We are sitting on the bed.

The root of the verb is zit, which has a short 'i' sound. When we add -en for the plural form (we sit), the word splits into syllables. If we wrote ziten, the first syllable would end in an open vowel (zi-ten) and sound long. To keep the short 'i' sound, we double the consonant to 'close' the syllable: zit-ten.

The translation says 'We are sitting', but where is the word for 'are'?

Dutch does not typically use a separate word for 'are' to show something is happening right now like English does. The simple present tense We zitten translates to both 'We sit' and 'We are sitting'.

Why do we use het instead of de before bed?

Dutch has two words for 'the': de and het. Bed happens to be a neuter word, so it must take het. It is best to memorize the matching article whenever you learn a new noun.

Is the 'd' at the end of bed pronounced like an English 'd'?

No, in Dutch, a 'd' at the very end of a word is always pronounced like a 't'. So bed sounds almost exactly like the English word 'bet'.