Word
Wat drinken de beren?
Meaning
What do the bears drink?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
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Questions & Answers about Wat drinken de beren?
The singular word for bear is beer. Why does the plural beren only have one 'e'?
When we add the regular plural ending -en to beer, the word gets split into two syllables: be-ren. In Dutch, when a syllable ends in a single vowel (an 'open' syllable), that vowel naturally makes a 'long' sound. We drop the extra 'e' because it's no longer needed to tell us how to pronounce it!
Why is the article de used for beren?
In Dutch, de is used for all plural nouns. It doesn't matter if the singular version of the word uses de or het; once it becomes plural, the word for 'the' is always de.
Why does the verb drinken end in -en here?
The subject of the sentence is plural (de beren). For all plural subjects (we, you all, they), Dutch verbs use their full dictionary form (the infinitive), which usually ends in -en.
Where is the word for 'do' in this sentence?
Unlike English, Dutch doesn't use helper words like 'do' or 'does' to make questions. Instead, it simply swaps the order of the subject and the verb. So, Wat drinken de beren? literally translates to 'What drink the bears?'.