Breakdown of Sluit het restaurant meteen!
het restaurant
the restaurant
meteen
immediately
sluiten
to close
Questions & Answers about Sluit het restaurant meteen!
Why is there no word for 'you' in this sentence?
Because this is a command (the imperative mood). Just like in English, when you tell someone to do something, you don't need to include a subject pronoun like 'jij' or 'je'. You simply start with the verb.
How do we get the form sluit?
To make a command in Dutch, you use the stem of the verb. The full verb (infinitive) is sluiten (to close). If you remove the -en ending, you are left with the stem: sluit.
Why does meteen come at the end of the sentence?
In Dutch, time words like meteen (immediately) generally come after the specific object. Because het restaurant is a specific, known object (it has het in front of it), meteen is placed right after it.
How would I make this command sound more polite or formal?
To make a command formal, you can add the formal 'you' (u) directly after the verb. When using u, the verb needs a -t at the end. Since sluit already ends in a -t, the spelling stays the same, becoming: Sluit u het restaurant meteen!
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