Questions & Answers about Wij wandelen buiten met de hond.
Why does this sentence use wandelen instead of wandel or wandelt?
The subject is wij (we), which is plural. In Dutch, present tense verbs for plural subjects (we, you plural, they) take the full dictionary form, which is called the infinitive. So, the verb is simply wandelen.
Could I use we instead of wij in this sentence?
Yes! Both mean "we". You use wij when you want to put a little extra focus on the people doing the action (for example, "WE are walking the dog, not them"). If you are just stating a regular fact, the unstressed word we is much more common.
Why does buiten come before met de hond? In English we can say "with the dog outside".
Dutch sentence structure has specific rules for extra details. Single words that describe a place, like buiten (outside), almost always come before phrases that start with a preposition, like met (with).
How do I know whether to use de or het for hond?
You generally have to memorize which word to use with each noun as you learn them, but it helps to know that almost all common pets and animals, including hond (dog), take de.