Breakdown of We kijken naar de lege fles.
naar
to
de fles
the bottle
leeg
empty
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
kijken naar
to look at / to watch
Questions & Answers about We kijken naar de lege fles.
Why does the adjective leeg get an -e at the end here?
Because it comes directly before the noun it describes (fles). In Dutch, we usually add an -e to adjectives in this position. Since fles is a de word, the adjective takes the -e ending after the definite article (de).
If the base word for empty is leeg, why is it spelled lege here instead of 'leege'?
This happens because of a common Dutch spelling rule for long vowels. The double ee in leeg makes a long vowel sound. When we add the -e ending, the word splits into two syllables (le-ge). In Dutch, a syllable ending in a single vowel automatically gets a long sound, so we drop the extra e to keep the spelling clean. Writing 'leege' is incorrect.
Doesn't naar usually mean 'to'? Why does it translate to 'at' here?
You are right that naar often means 'to', like when traveling to a place. However, verbs often have fixed prepositions they pair with. In Dutch, the phrase 'to look at' is always kijken naar. It is best to memorize them together as a set pair.
Can I use wij instead of we to start this sentence?
Yes! Both mean 'we'. We is the neutral, everyday version. You would use wij if you wanted to strongly emphasize that we are looking at it, as opposed to someone else.
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