Breakdown of Zestien mannen en zeventien vrouwen werken hier.
de man
the man
de vrouw
the woman
hier
here
en
and
werken
to work
zestien
sixteen
zeventien
seventeen
Questions & Answers about Zestien mannen en zeventien vrouwen werken hier.
How do you build numbers like zestien and zeventien in Dutch?
Just like English uses '-teen' to mean ten, Dutch uses tien. You simply combine the base number with tien. So, zes (six) plus tien makes zestien (sixteen), and zeven (seven) plus tien makes zeventien (seventeen).
Why do man and vrouw have -en added to them in this sentence?
Because they are plural! Since we are talking about 16 men and 17 women, we need the plural forms. In Dutch, most nouns are made plural by adding -en to the end. Notice that man doubles its final consonant to become mannen in order to keep the 'a' vowel sound short.
The verb werken is the sixth word in the sentence. Doesn't Dutch require the verb to be in the second position?
Yes, but the second position refers to the second block of information, not strictly the second word. The entire phrase Zestien mannen en zeventien vrouwen makes up the first block (the subject). So, the verb werken is correctly sitting right in the second position.
Why do we use werken instead of werkt?
Because the subject is plural (a group of men and women). In the present tense, all plural subjects take the infinitive (the base dictionary form of the verb), which almost always ends in -en.
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