Word
Hij heeft vijfenveertig boeken.
Meaning
He has forty-five books.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij heeft vijfenveertig boeken.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
het boek
the book
hebben
to have
vijf
five
Questions & Answers about Hij heeft vijfenveertig boeken.
Why is forty-five written as vijfenveertig instead of veertigenvijf?
In Dutch, compound numbers from 21 to 99 are said backwards compared to English. You say the ones first, then en (and), and then the tens. So, 45 is literally five-and-forty. Notice that it is all written together as one single word!
How is the en in vijfenveertig pronounced?
While it is exactly the same as the regular word en (and), when used inside compound numbers it is usually pronounced very quickly with a soft uh sound, almost like vijf-uh-veertig.
I remember the verb for to have is hebben. Why is it heeft in this sentence?
Hebben is a highly irregular verb. For the singular pronouns hij (he), zij (she), and het (it), the correct conjugation is heeft.
How does the plural work for boeken?
To make a noun plural in Dutch, you most commonly add -en or -s to the end of the singular word. The singular word for book is boek, so adding -en makes it boeken.