Log inSign up

Er zijn veel studenten in de stad.

Er zijn veel studenten in de stad.
There are many students in the city.
From Lesson 52:There is / there are (er is, er zijn)·Dutch

Questions & Answers about Er zijn veel studenten in de stad.

Why does this sentence start with er zijn instead of daar zijn?
Er zijn means "there are" when you are stating that something exists in general. If you used daar zijn, you would be pointing to a specific physical location, meaning "over there are...". Since we are just stating the existence of the students in the city, we use the existential word er.
Why do we use zijn here instead of is?
Zijn (are) is the plural form of the verb zijn (to be). We use it here because the subject we are introducing, veel studenten (many students), is plural. If we were talking about just one student, it would be Er is een student (There is a student).
Does veel mean "much" or "many" here?
It means "many" here, but veel actually translates to both! In Dutch, veel is used for countable things (like veel studenten / many students) as well as uncountable things (like veel water / much water).
How is the plural of student formed in this sentence?
In Dutch, most nouns are made plural by adding either -en or -s. The noun student takes -en to become the plural studenten.

Learn Er zijn veel studenten in de stad and more in Dutch

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Dutch →