Breakdown of Hij neemt het cadeau mee.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
het cadeau
the gift
meenemen
to take along / to bring
Questions & Answers about Hij neemt het cadeau mee.
Why is the word mee at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the separable verb meenemen (to bring or to take along). In a normal Dutch sentence, these verbs split. The core verb (neemt) goes in the second position, and the prefix (mee) is pushed to the very end of the clause.
Doesn't neemt mean "takes"? Why does the translation say "bringing"?
You are right that nemen by itself means "to take". However, the full verb in this sentence is meenemen. It literally means "to take along", which is the standard Dutch way to say "to bring".
The English translation says "is bringing", but where is the word for "is" in Dutch?
Dutch doesn't have an exact match for the English "-ing" verb forms. The simple present tense Hij neemt ... mee covers both "He brings" and "He is bringing". You don't need an extra verb for "is" here.
Why is it het cadeau and not de cadeau?
Cadeau is a neuter noun, which means it must use the definite article het for "the" instead of de. You will often see this with words borrowed from other languages, like French! There isn't a strict rule to guess this, so it is best to memorize it as het cadeau.
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