Word
Die schoenen zijn veertig euro.
Meaning
Those shoes are forty euros.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die schoenen zijn veertig euro.
zijn
to be
de schoen
the shoe
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
de euro
the euro
Questions & Answers about Die schoenen zijn veertig euro.
Why is 40 spelled veertig when the number 4 is vier?
Just like in English where "four" changes spelling to become "forty", Dutch does something similar. The "i" in vier is dropped to make veertig. It's a small exception you just have to memorize.
How do you pronounce the end of veertig?
When a Dutch number ends in -ig, that ending is pronounced like "uhg" (a short "uh" sound followed by the scraping Dutch G). So veertig sounds a bit like "veer-tuhg".
Why isn't euro plural in the Dutch sentence?
In Dutch, currencies like euro and dollar, as well as units of measurement, stay in the singular form when they come after a number. Even though you are talking about forty of them, you just say veertig euro.
Could I use dat instead of die to say "those shoes"?
No, because schoenen is a plural noun. In Dutch, you always use die (those) or deze (these) when pointing out plural nouns, regardless of whether the singular word uses de or het.