Word
De studenten zoeken hun boeken.
Meaning
The students are looking for their books.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De studenten zoeken hun boeken.
de student
the student
het boek
the book
zoeken
to look for
hun
their
Questions & Answers about De studenten zoeken hun boeken.
Why do we use hun for 'their', and does it ever change its ending like onze does?
Hun is the Dutch possessive adjective for 'their', belonging here to De studenten. Unlike ons (which becomes onze before certain words), hun stays exactly the same no matter if the noun that follows it is singular, plural, a de-word, or a het-word.
The English translation says 'are looking for'. Where is the word for 'for' in the Dutch sentence?
The Dutch verb zoeken translates directly as 'to look for' or 'to seek'. The 'for' is already built into the verb's meaning, so you do not need to add an extra preposition in Dutch.
Why does the verb zoeken end in -en here?
The subject of the sentence is De studenten (The students), which is plural. In Dutch, plural subjects (we, you all, they, or any plural noun) use the plural form of the verb. This form is almost always the same as the full dictionary word ending in -en.
I see both studenten and boeken end in -en. Do all plural words in Dutch end this way?
Adding -en to the end of a singular noun (like student or boek) is the most common way to make plurals in Dutch. However, it is not the only way; many words get an -s instead, especially words that end in a vowel.