Breakdown of Het meisje eet de appel, want ze heeft honger.
zij
she
het meisje
the girl
hebben
to have
eten
to eat
de appel
the apple
want
because
de honger
the hunger
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Het meisje eet de appel, want ze heeft honger.
Why doesn't the word order change after want?
Want (because) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it connects two independent sentences without changing their word order. The second part, ze heeft honger, keeps the normal subject-verb order just as it would on its own.
Why does the Dutch sentence say heeft honger instead of using a word for "is"?
In Dutch, you don't say that you are hungry. Instead, you say that you have hunger. This is why the sentence uses heeft (has) combined with the noun honger (hunger).
A girl is female, so why do we use the neuter article het for meisje?
The word meisje ends in -je, making it a diminutive (a word for a smaller version of something). In Dutch, all diminutive words automatically take the article het, even when they refer to a living person.
Can I use zij instead of ze in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Ze is the unstressed, everyday word for "she". Zij means the exact same thing but is used when you want to put emphasis on the person. Here, ze is perfect because we are just stating a simple fact without focusing heavily on the girl herself.
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