Word
De jongens bestellen veel drankjes.
Meaning
The boys are ordering a lot of drinks.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of De jongens bestellen veel drankjes.
de jongen
the boy
veel
much / many / a lot of
bestellen
to order
het drankje
the drink
Questions & Answers about De jongens bestellen veel drankjes.
Why does jongens get an -s to make it plural instead of -en?
Most Dutch words use -en for the plural, but words that end in an unstressed -el, -em, -en, or -er usually get an -s. Since jongen ends in -en, it becomes jongens.
Does drankjes also follow that same rule for its -s ending?
Not exactly. Drankjes is the plural of drankje (a drink). The word drankje is a diminutive (a word ending in -je used for small or casual things). All Dutch diminutives form their plural by simply adding an -s.
The English translation says 'a lot of', but where is the word for 'of' in the Dutch sentence?
In Dutch, the word veel means 'many', 'much', or 'a lot of' all by itself. You do not need to add an extra word for 'of' before the noun.
Why is the verb bestellen used in its full form here?
Because the subject is plural. De jongens acts as 'they' (zij). In the present tense, all plural subjects take the full dictionary form of the verb, which in this case is bestellen (to order).