Questions & Answers about Mijn moeder drinkt altijd koffie.
Does the word mijn change depending on whether the noun is a de word or a het word?
No. The possessive adjective mijn (my) stays exactly the same whether the noun that follows is a de word, a het word, singular, or plural.
I've heard people say m'n instead of mijn. Is that correct here?
Yes! In everyday spoken Dutch, mijn is very commonly shortened to m'n (pronounced a bit like the English word "mun"). While you usually write Mijn moeder, saying m'n moeder sounds very natural in conversation.
Why does altijd come after drinkt? In English we say "always drinks".
In a standard Dutch sentence, the working verb must take the second position. The subject (Mijn moeder) is in position one, so the verb (drinkt) has to be in position two. Because of this strict rule, adverbs like altijd (always) get pushed to after the verb.
Why does the verb end in a t (drinkt)?
Because the subject of the sentence is Mijn moeder, which is a "she". For third-person singular subjects (he, she, or it), Dutch takes the ik form of the verb (drink) and adds a -t to the end. So, ik drink becomes mijn moeder drinkt.