Breakdown of We werken vijf dagen in een week.
een
a/an
vijf
five
werken
to work
in
in
de dag
the day
de week
the week
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We werken vijf dagen in een week.
If I wanted to ask "How many days do we work in a week?", how would I use the question words from this lesson?
You would use hoeveel (how many/how much). The question would be: Hoeveel dagen werken we in een week? Notice that the verb werken comes right after the question phrase hoeveel dagen.
The singular word for "day" is dag with a short "a" sound. Why does the plural dagen have a long "a" sound?
Normally, a short vowel stays short in the plural (by doubling the consonant, like kat becoming katten). However, dag is one of a few special words in Dutch where the vowel sound actually stretches from short in the singular (dag) to long in the plural (dagen). Because this long "a" sound is at the end of a syllable (da-gen), Dutch spelling rules say we only need to write one "a".
Could I use wij instead of we in this sentence?
Yes! Wij and we both mean "we", and both take the plural verb werken. We is the unstressed, everyday version. You would use wij if you wanted to put extra emphasis on who is working (for example, "We work five days, but they only work four").
Can I say per week instead of in een week?
Yes, absolutely. Just like in English, you can say vijf dagen in een week (five days in a week) or vijf dagen per week (five days per week). Both are correct and very common in Dutch.
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