Breakdown of De jongen drinkt geen sap.
de jongen
the boy
geen
no / not any
drinken
to drink
het sap
the juice
Questions & Answers about De jongen drinkt geen sap.
Why do we use geen instead of niet here?
In Dutch, geen is used to negate a noun that doesn't have a specific article like "the" or "this" in front of it. It works exactly like the English word "no" in the phrase "he drinks no juice". Since the boy is just drinking no juice in general, we use geen. If he were refusing a specific glass of juice, you would use niet: De jongen drinkt het sap niet.
Since this lesson is about diminutives, how would I say "the little boy"?
The normal word for boy is jongen. While this lesson focuses on the basic -je ending, words ending in -en usually take a slightly different suffix. "Little boy" actually becomes jongetje (the final 'n' drops and we add -tje). Also, remember that all diminutives become "it" words, so the article changes to het: het jongetje.
Could I add the basic -je suffix to sap?
Absolutely! If you add the suffix to get sapje, it changes how you use the word slightly. While sap means the liquid "juice" in a general, uncountable sense, een sapje is a very common and natural way to say "a glass of juice" or a single serving of juice.
Why does drinkt have a 't' at the end?
Because the subject doing the action is de jongen (a "he"). In Dutch, to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense for "he", "she", or "it", you take the simple stem of the verb (drink) and add a -t. So it is ik drink (I drink), but de jongen drinkt (the boy drinks).
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