Questions & Answers about Ik zie mijn ouders regelmatig in het weekend.
Why does regelmatig come after mijn ouders instead of before it?
In Dutch, adverbs of time and frequency like regelmatig usually come after a specific direct object. Because mijn ouders refers to your specific parents, the frequency adverb goes after it. If you were talking about parents in general, the adverb would come before the object.
Could I start this sentence with regelmatig?
Yes! You can put adverbs of frequency at the very beginning of the sentence to emphasize how often the action happens. Just remember that doing this causes inversion, meaning the verb and subject must trade places: Regelmatig zie ik mijn ouders in het weekend.
Why is it in het weekend when in English we say on the weekend or at the weekend?
Prepositions rarely translate perfectly word-for-word between languages. In Dutch, the standard way to talk about things happening during the weekend is to use in het weekend (literally in the weekend).
Does the word order change if I use a different frequency word, like soms or altijd?
No, the word order stays exactly the same. You can easily swap out regelmatig for another adverb of frequency from this lesson without changing anything else: Ik zie mijn ouders soms in het weekend or Ik zie mijn ouders altijd in het weekend.