Breakdown of Zwemmen ze woensdag in het zwembad?
in
in
zwemmen
to swim
woensdag
Wednesday
het zwembad
the swimming pool
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Zwemmen ze woensdag in het zwembad?
Why does woensdag come before in het zwembad?
This is the 'Time before Place' rule in action! In English, we usually put the place before the time ('in the pool on Wednesday'). But in Dutch, the time (woensdag) almost always comes before the place (in het zwembad).
Do I need a word for 'on' before Wednesday, like op woensdag?
You can say op woensdag, but it is very common in Dutch to just use the day of the week by itself as a time word. Both Zwemmen ze op woensdag... and Zwemmen ze woensdag... are perfectly correct.
Why does the sentence start with the verb Zwemmen?
Because this is a yes/no question. To turn a statement like Ze zwemmen (They swim) into a question, you simply swap the subject and the verb to get Zwemmen ze? (Do they swim? / Are they swimming?).
Since ze can mean 'she' or 'they', how do we know it means 'they' here?
We can tell by looking at the verb! Zwemmen is the plural form of the verb. If the sentence was about 'she', it would use the singular form zwemt: Zwemt ze woensdag in het zwembad?
Is zwembad related to the verb zwemmen?
Yes! It is a compound word made from the word for swim (zwem) and the word for bath (bad). So a zwembad is literally a 'swim-bath'.
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