Word
Waarom huilen die baby's?
Meaning
Why are those babies crying?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Waarom huilen die baby's?
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
waarom
why
huilen
to cry
de baby
the baby
Questions & Answers about Waarom huilen die baby's?
Why is the plural of baby written as baby's with an apostrophe?
In Dutch, nouns ending in a single vowel letter (like -a, -o, -u, or -y) get an apostrophe plus s ('s) to make them plural. This shows that the vowel sound doesn't change. Notice that unlike English, the y doesn't change to 'ie'.
Why do we use die here for 'those'?
Die is the word for 'that' or 'those' when pointing at de-words. Because all plural nouns act as de-words, you always use die for 'those' (and deze for 'these'), no matter what the singular word uses.
The English translation says 'are crying', but there is no verb for 'are' in the Dutch sentence. Why?
Dutch doesn't usually need extra helper words for ongoing actions the way English does. The simple present tense verb huilen translates perfectly to both 'cry' and 'are crying'.
Why does huilen come right after Waarom?
In Dutch questions that start with a question word like Waarom (Why), the verb always takes the second position in the sentence. The subject (die baby's) must come immediately after the verb.