Word
Mijn broer zit op de zevende stoel.
Meaning
My brother sits on the seventh chair.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Mijn broer zit op de zevende stoel.
de broer
the brother
zitten
to sit
op
on
de stoel
the chair
Questions & Answers about Mijn broer zit op de zevende stoel.
How do you make the word for 'seventh' (zevende) from 'seven' (zeven)?
For most numbers from 2 to 19, you simply add -de to the end of the normal number. So, zeven (seven) becomes zevende (seventh). Two common exceptions are eerste (first, which ends in -ste) and achtste (eighth). Numbers from 20 onwards also get -ste.
Why does it say de zevende stoel and not het zevende stoel?
Ordinal numbers like zevende act like adjectives describing the noun. Because stoel is a de-word (de stoel), we use the article de. If the noun were a het-word, like huis (house), it would be het zevende huis.
Why use zit instead of is to say where he is?
While you could use is, Dutch strongly prefers to use posture verbs like zitten (to sit), staan (to stand), or liggen (to lie) to describe exactly how someone or something is positioned. Since a brother sits on a chair, zit is the most natural choice.
Does the preposition op always mean 'on'?