Breakdown of We bestellen achttien koekjes en negentien koppen thee.
en
and
de thee
the tea
het koekje
the cookie
bestellen
to order
de kop
the cup
achttien
eighteen
negentien
nineteen
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We bestellen achttien koekjes en negentien koppen thee.
How do you build numbers like achttien and negentien?
Just like in English, you add a suffix to the base number. In Dutch, you add -tien (which means ten) to the base number. So, acht (eight) plus tien becomes achttien, and negen (nine) plus tien becomes negentien. Notice that achttien keeps both 't's!
Why is there no word for "of" in koppen thee (cups of tea)?
In Dutch, when you are talking about an amount or a container of something, you don't use a word for "of". You just put the container and the drink right next to each other, so koppen thee literally translates to "cups tea".
What is the base word for koekjes?
The base word is koek (cake or biscuit). The -je makes it a diminutive (meaning small), so a koekje is a small cake, or a cookie. The -s at the end makes it plural: koekjes. Fun fact: the English word "cookie" comes directly from this Dutch word!
Why does the verb bestellen end in -en?
Because the subject of the sentence is we (we). In the Dutch present tense, all plural subjects (we, jullie, ze/zij) take the full infinitive form of the verb, which almost always ends in -en.
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