Questions & Answers about Waar is zijn telefoon?
Wait, doesn't zijn mean "to be"?
You're right! Zijn is the infinitive verb meaning "to be", but it is also the possessive word for "his". You can easily tell them apart from the context: here it comes right before a noun (telefoon), so it has to mean "his".
How would I ask "Where is her phone?" instead?
To say "her", you would replace zijn with haar. The sentence becomes Waar is haar telefoon?
Will I always hear zijn pronounced exactly as it is written?
Not always! In everyday spoken Dutch, the possessive zijn is very often shortened to z'n (pronounced a bit like "zun" in English). You will hear this a lot in casual conversation.
Why does the verb is come before zijn telefoon?
In Dutch questions that start with a question word like waar (where), the verb comes right after that question word. So it is Waar is... (Where is...) followed by the subject zijn telefoon (his phone). This matches the English word order perfectly.
Learn Waar is zijn telefoon and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free