Breakdown of Twintig vrienden drinken elf flessen water.
drinken
to drink
het water
the water
de vriend
the friend
de fles
the bottle
Questions & Answers about Twintig vrienden drinken elf flessen water.
How is the ending of twintig pronounced?
In Dutch, the -ig ending on numbers like twintig (twenty) is pronounced like "ukh". The "i" becomes a short, weak vowel and the "g" makes the typical soft, breathy Dutch scrape. You will hear this ending on all the tens from 20 up to 90!
Do the numbers elf and twintig ever change their endings to match the noun?
No, counting numbers (like 11 and 20) never change their form based on what you are counting. They are always just elf and twintig, whether they describe friends, bottles, or anything else.
Why does flessen have a double "s"?
The singular word for bottle is fles. Because the "e" is a short vowel, we have to double the consonant after it when we add the plural ending -en. This spelling rule keeps the vowel short! If you wrote "flesen", the "e" would sound like a long vowel.
Why is it elf flessen water instead of "elf flessen van water"?
In English we say "bottles of water", but in Dutch you do not use a word for "of" when talking about amounts, measurements, or containers. You simply put the container and the substance right next to each other: flessen water.