Breakdown of We lopen maandag naar de bibliotheek.
lopen
to walk
naar
to
maandag
Monday
de bibliotheek
the library
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We lopen maandag naar de bibliotheek.
Why is maandag in the middle of the sentence instead of at the end like in English?
This sentence follows a very important Dutch word order rule: Time before Place. The time word maandag (Monday) must come before the place phrase naar de bibliotheek (to the library). In English, we usually do the opposite and put the place first.
The English translation says "are walking", but I only see the word lopen. Where is "are"?
Dutch doesn't use a separate word for "are" in these situations. The simple verb lopen means both "walk" and "are walking". You never need to add an extra verb to show that an action is happening right now.
Why isn't the word maandag capitalized?
In Dutch, days of the week, months, and seasons are written with lowercase letters unless they are the very first word of the sentence. So it is just maandag, not Maandag.
Why do we use naar for "to" here?
You use naar when you are talking about physical movement or travel toward a destination, like walking to the library (de bibliotheek).
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