Questions & Answers about De man heeft elf boeken.
Does the number elf change its spelling depending on the noun it describes?
No. In Dutch, cardinal numbers like elf (eleven) stay exactly the same regardless of the noun that follows them. You just place the number directly before the noun, as in elf boeken.
The dictionary form of the verb "to have" is hebben. Why does this sentence use heeft?
hebben is an irregular verb. When referring to "he", "she", or "it" (the third-person singular), the form changes to heeft. Since de man acts as a "he", we use heeft—just like saying "he has" instead of "he have" in English.
How do we know boeken is plural?
The singular word for book is boek. Because the man has eleven of them, we need the plural form. In Dutch, the most common way to make a word plural is by adding -en to the end, which gives us boeken.
Why is it de man instead of het man?
Dutch has two words for "the": de and het. The word man takes de. As a helpful guideline for beginners, almost all nouns that refer to specific people (like man, woman, or baker) take de, with a notable exception being het kind (the child).