Breakdown of Het jonge meisje zal zeker slagen.
het meisje
the girl
jong
young
zullen
shall / will
zeker
certainly
slagen
to pass
Questions & Answers about Het jonge meisje zal zeker slagen.
Why is the verb slagen at the very end of the sentence?
In this sentence, zal (will) is a helping verb. In Dutch, whenever you use a helping verb, the main action verb—in this case, slagen (to pass)—gets pushed to the very end of the sentence in its full dictionary form (the infinitive).
Why is the verb zal instead of zalt for a third-person subject?
Zullen (will) is an irregular verb. For third-person singular subjects like het meisje (the girl), hij (he), or zij (she), the correct form is just zal, with no -t added to the end.
Why does jong have an -e at the end (jonge)?
Meisje is a het word. When an adjective comes before a het word that uses the specific article het (the), it gets an -e added to it. If the sentence said "a young girl" with the unspecific article een, the -e would disappear: een jong meisje.
Why does meisje use the article het instead of de, if a girl is female?
In Dutch, all words ending in -je (diminutives, meaning "little") are automatically neuter het words. Because meisje structurally ends in a diminutive suffix, it follows this grammar rule rather than the biological gender of the person.
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