Breakdown of Zij gaan daar een groot hotel bouwen.
een
a/an
groot
big
daar
there
zij
they
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
het hotel
the hotel
bouwen
to build
Questions & Answers about Zij gaan daar een groot hotel bouwen.
Why is the verb bouwen at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you use a helper verb like gaan to talk about the future, it takes the normal second position in the sentence. The main action verb (bouwen) gets pushed all the way to the end. This creates a verb bracket around the rest of the sentence.
Why is it een groot hotel and not een grote hotel?
This is a great rule to remember! Hotel is a het-word (het hotel). When a het-word is used with the indefinite article een (a/an), the adjective before it loses its -e ending. If we were talking about a specific hotel, the ending returns: het grote hotel.
Could I use Ze instead of Zij in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Zij and ze both mean "they" (or "she", but here it's plural because of gaan). Zij is the stressed form, used when you want to put special emphasis on who is building the hotel. If you are just stating a fact without emphasis, Ze is perfectly fine and very common.
Could I put daar at the end, like in English: "Zij gaan een groot hotel bouwen daar"?
No, that would sound unnatural. In Dutch, place words like daar (there) generally come before the direct object (een groot hotel) and always before the main verb (bouwen) waiting at the end of the sentence.
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