Learn Dutch: Mijn vader zoekt zijn paspoort. - My father is looking for his passport.

Zijn is a word with two completely different meanings! You probably know it as the verb "to be" (like in wij zijn, meaning "we are"). But here, it is the possessive word for "his". You can tell it means "his" because it comes right before a noun (paspoort).

Where is the word for "for" in this sentence?

In Dutch, you don't need a separate word for "for" when you use the verb zoeken. The verb zoeken translates to the whole phrase "to look for" or "to search for". So, zoekt zijn paspoort directly means "is looking for his passport" without needing an extra preposition.

The English translation says "is looking", but the Dutch sentence just uses zoekt. Why?

Dutch doesn't use an "is doing" form (continuous tense) the way English does. For most situations, Dutch simply uses the standard present tense. So, Mijn vader zoekt means both "My father looks" and "My father is looking".

What if the passport belonged to my mother? How would the sentence change?

If your mother was looking for her passport, you would use the possessive word haar (her). The sentence would become: Mijn moeder zoekt haar paspoort.