Breakdown of Wij ontbijten 's morgens altijd samen.
wij
we
samen
together
altijd
always
's morgens
in the morning
ontbijten
to eat breakfast
Questions & Answers about Wij ontbijten 's morgens altijd samen.
What does the 's in 's morgens stand for?
It is short for des, an old Dutch word meaning "of the". So 's morgens literally means "of the morning". In modern Dutch, it is used to talk about routines and means "in the morning" or "mornings". You will also see this pattern in 's middags, 's avonds, and 's nachts.
Why isn't there a word for "eat" or "have" in this sentence?
In English, you usually say "eat breakfast" or "have breakfast". Dutch makes it easier by using a single verb: ontbijten (to breakfast). So wij ontbijten covers the whole phrase "we eat breakfast".
Why does 's morgens come before altijd samen?
Dutch word order usually follows the "Time-Manner-Place" rule. Here, 's morgens tells us when (Time), and altijd samen (always together) tells us how (Manner). Therefore, the time expression goes first.
If I started the sentence with 's morgens, how would I capitalize it?
The apostrophe-s stays lowercase, and the first actual letter gets capitalized instead! It would look like this: 's Morgens ontbijten wij altijd samen. (Notice how the verb ontbijten and subject wij also swap places, which is required when you put a time expression at the start of a sentence).
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