Questions & Answers about Zes beren lopen in de stad!
Why is the plural of beer spelled as beren with only one 'e'?
In Dutch, when you add -en to make a plural, the word breaks into new syllables. Beer has a long double vowel. When it becomes plural, the syllables are split as be-ren. Because the first syllable now ends in a vowel, the 'e' automatically sounds long. We drop the second 'e' because it is no longer needed to show the sound is long.
The English translation says "are walking", but the Dutch sentence just uses lopen. Why isn't there a word for "are"?
Dutch doesn't normally use an "are doing" form like English does. The single verb lopen translates to both "walk" and "are walking". You just use the regular present tense to show that something is happening right now.
Why is the verb lopen used here instead of loopt?
The subject of the sentence is Zes beren (Six bears), which is plural. Plural subjects always take the full plural form of the verb, which almost always ends in -en and looks exactly like the dictionary form.
The word stad sounds like it ends with a 't'. Why is it spelled with a 'd'?
In Dutch, whenever a 'd' is at the very end of a word, it is pronounced as a 't'. It is spelled with a 'd' because of its plural form. If you add letters to the end, the 'd' moves to the middle of the word and sounds like a 'd' again.