Breakdown of We accepteren dit contract niet.
niet
not
dit
this (neuter)
accepteren
to accept
het contract
the contract
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We accepteren dit contract niet.
Why does niet go at the very end of this sentence instead of right after the verb?
In Dutch, niet (not) is placed after a specific direct object. The object in this sentence is dit contract (this contract), which is very specific. Therefore, niet gets pushed to the end. It would be incorrect to say We accepteren niet dit contract.
Could I use geen instead of niet to make this sentence negative?
Not without changing the meaning completely! You use geen to negate non-specific nouns (meaning "no" or "not any"). If you said We accepteren geen contract, it would mean "We don't accept any contracts." Because we are talking about one specific thing (dit contract), we must use niet.
Why do we use dit instead of deze for "this"?
In Dutch, the word you use for "this" depends on the article the noun takes. Contract is a het-word (het contract). For singular het-words, we always use dit. If it were a de-word, we would use deze.
Why does the verb accepteren end in -en here?
Because the subject is we (we). In the present tense, plural subjects (we, jullie, ze/zij) take the plural form of the verb, which is exactly the same as the full infinitive (dictionary) form. These almost always end in -en.
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