Word
Die lamp staat naast het raam.
Meaning
That lamp is standing next to the window.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die lamp staat naast het raam.
het raam
the window
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
de lamp
the lamp
staan
to stand
Questions & Answers about Die lamp staat naast het raam.
Why do we use die for 'that' here instead of dat?
In Dutch, the word for 'that' depends on the article the noun uses. Because lamp is a de word (de lamp), we use die. If we were talking about a het word, we would use dat.
If I wanted to say 'that window' later in the sentence, would I use die raam?
No, you would use dat raam. As we can see in the sentence, window is het raam. For all het words, the word for 'that' is dat, while die is strictly for de words and all plural words.
Why use staat (stands) instead of is to say where the lamp is?
Dutch speakers prefer to describe the physical position of an object rather than just saying it 'is' somewhere. Because a lamp usually rests upright on its base, we use staan (to stand). If an object lies flat, like a rug, we would use liggen (to lie).
The English translation says 'is standing', but the Dutch just says staat. Why?
Dutch does not have a direct equivalent to the English 'is doing' tense here. The single verb staat translates to both 'stands' and 'is standing'.