Breakdown of In de winter zien we veel sneeuw.
veel
much / many / a lot of
zien
to see
in
in
de winter
the winter
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de sneeuw
the snow
Questions & Answers about In de winter zien we veel sneeuw.
Why do we say in de winter? English just uses "in winter" without "the".
When talking about things happening during a season, Dutch almost always uses the definite article de. So, while English says "in winter" or "in summer", Dutch requires in de winter and in de zomer.
Why is the order zien we instead of we zien?
This is the Dutch "verb-second" rule in action! Because the sentence starts with the time phrase In de winter, that phrase takes up the first position in the sentence. The verb (zien) must come second, so the subject (we) is pushed right after it.
Does veel mean "many" or "much" here?
Veel can mean "many", "much", or "a lot of". In Dutch, you use veel for both countable things (like "many cars") and uncountable things like sneeuw (snow). Here it translates best to "a lot of".
The word sneeuw has an unusual spelling. How is the -eeuw part pronounced?
The -eeuw letter combination makes a sound like a long "ay" (as in "day") that glides smoothly into a "w" or "oo" sound. You will also see this same sound in other common words like leeuw (lion) and eeuw (century).
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