Breakdown of Welke trein is de zesde?
zijn
to be
de trein
the train
welke
which (for de-words and plural)
zesde
sixth (6th)
Questions & Answers about Welke trein is de zesde?
How do you form the word zesde (sixth)?
You take the normal number for six, which is zes, and add the ending -de. In Dutch, most numbers from 2 to 19 turn into ordinal numbers (like 2nd, 3rd, 4th) by simply adding -de.
Do all numbers just get -de added to them?
Most numbers from 2 to 19 do, but there are a few important exceptions you will see in this lesson. For example, "first" is eerste and "eighth" is achtste. Additionally, any number from 20 onwards gets -ste instead of -de.
Why do we use welke here instead of welk?
The word for "train" is a de-word (de trein). When you want to say "which" before a de-word, you must use welke. If you were asking about a het-word, like a ticket (het kaartje), you would use welk (welk kaartje).
Why doesn't de zesde have a noun after it?
Just like in English, you can drop the noun if it is already obvious from the sentence. You could say Welke trein is de zesde trein? (Which train is the sixth train?), but dropping the second trein sounds much more natural.