Breakdown of Ik zie twaalf bomen en dertien bloemen.
ik
I
en
and
zien
to see
de bloem
the flower
de boom
the tree
twaalf
twelve
dertien
thirteen
Questions & Answers about Ik zie twaalf bomen en dertien bloemen.
How are the numbers twaalf and dertien formed?
twaalf (twelve) is a unique word, just like in English. For dertien (thirteen), Dutch combines der (a form of three) and tien (ten). Many numbers from 13 to 19 follow this pattern by ending in -tien, which is exactly like the English ending "-teen".
The dictionary word for tree is boom. Why does it change to bomen here instead of boomen?
The word for flower is bloem. Why doesn't it lose a vowel in the plural like bomen did?
The word bloem uses the vowel combination oe, which makes an "oo" sound (like in the English word "boot"). Unlike the double oo in boom, special two-letter vowel combinations like oe, ie, and eu never drop a letter when a word gets longer. So, it simply becomes bloemen.
Why is the verb zie instead of the full verb zien?
zien (to see) is the whole verb (the infinitive form you find in a dictionary). Whenever the subject is Ik (I), Dutch uses the basic stem of the verb. For this verb, that means dropping the -n at the end to get zie.
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