Breakdown of Ze koopt de witte bloemen.
zij
she
kopen
to buy
de bloem
the flower
wit
white
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze koopt de witte bloemen.
Why is the adjective witte instead of just wit?
When an adjective comes directly before the noun it describes, it usually gets an extra -e at the end. Because we are talking about de bloemen (the flowers), the adjective takes the -e ending to become witte.
The dictionary word for white is wit. Why does witte have a double 't'?
This is a very common Dutch spelling rule! The word wit has a short 'i' sound. If we just added an -e to make "wite", the 'i' would suddenly sound long. To lock in that short 'i' sound when we add the extra syllable, we have to double the consonant, making it witte.
Ze can mean "she" or "they". How do I know it means "she" in this sentence?
You have to look at the verb! The verb koopt is the singular form (buys). If the sentence was about "they", it would use the plural verb form kopen: Ze kopen de witte bloemen.
How do we form the plural for bloemen?
The singular word is bloem (flower). The most common way to make a noun plural in Dutch is to add -en to the end. Since all plural nouns also use the "the" word de, the phrase is de bloemen (the flowers).
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