Breakdown of De man leest de krant en de vrouw drinkt koffie.
de man
the man
de vrouw
the woman
en
and
lezen
to read
de krant
the newspaper
drinken
to drink
de koffie
the coffee
Questions & Answers about De man leest de krant en de vrouw drinkt koffie.
How does the word en affect the word order in the second half of this sentence?
It doesn't! The word en (and) is a coordinating conjunction, which means it simply glues two normal sentences together. The word order in the second part stays Subject-Verb-Object (de vrouw drinkt koffie), exactly like the first part.
Why do both verbs (leest and drinkt) end in a -t?
Because the subjects of both verbs are in the third person singular. In Dutch, when the subject is equivalent to 'he', 'she', or 'it' (in this case, de man and de vrouw), you add a -t to the stem of the verb.
Why is there no word for 'the' before koffie?
Just like in English, we use articles with countable nouns like a newspaper (de krant). However, for uncountable nouns like liquids (koffie), we leave out the article when talking about them in a general sense.
Is there a rule to remember why man, vrouw, and krant all use de?
For man and vrouw, yes! Nouns that identify people based on their gender or profession almost always take de. For krant, you just have to memorize it. About 75% of Dutch words are de words, so when in doubt, de is your best guess at this level!
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