Breakdown of Bestel de koffie en geef de ober het geld.
en
and
het geld
the money
de koffie
the coffee
de ober
the waiter
bestellen
to order
geven
to give
Questions & Answers about Bestel de koffie en geef de ober het geld.
Why do the verbs bestel and geef come at the beginning of their phrases without a subject like jij (you)?
This sentence is giving commands (the imperative mood). In Dutch, just like in English, you make a command by dropping the subject (like jij) and putting the verb at the very beginning.
How do I know to use bestel instead of bestellen?
For a command, you generally use the ik (I) form of the verb. The full dictionary verb is bestellen (to order). To get the ik form, you take away the -en ending and drop the extra l, leaving you with bestel.
The verb for "to give" is geven. Why does the command form geef have a double "e" and an "f"?
Because commands use the ik form! When you remove the -en from geven, you get gev. But Dutch words never end in a v, so it changes to an f. Also, the e in geven is a long vowel sound, so we have to double it to ee in geef to keep that long sound.
Why does de ober (the waiter) come before het geld (the money)?
This works exactly like the English translation! When a sentence has someone receiving something (de ober) and the thing being given (het geld), the person receiving it usually comes first. You could also use the word aan (to) and flip them: geef het geld aan de ober.
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