Breakdown of Er wandelen veel opa's in het park.
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
wandelen
to walk (for pleasure)
er
there (existential)
het park
the park
de opa
the grandpa
Questions & Answers about Er wandelen veel opa's in het park.
Why does opa's have an apostrophe? Plurals in English usually don't do that.
In Dutch, nouns ending in a single open vowel like a, i, o, u, or y get an apostrophe-s ('s) for the plural. If you just added an s to make opas, the rules of Dutch pronunciation would make the a sound short. The apostrophe protects the long vowel sound in opa.
Why does the sentence start with Er instead of just saying Veel opa's wandelen in het park?
Er is often used as a placeholder to introduce new, non-specific information, similar to "There are" in English. While you could technically say Veel opa's wandelen..., Dutch speakers heavily prefer using Er when the subject is indefinite (like "many grandpas" or "a dog").
If veel opa's is the subject, why does the verb wandelen come before it?
This is because of the Dutch "verb second" rule. In a normal main sentence, the conjugated verb must be the second piece of information. Here, the word Er takes the first spot, so the verb wandelen takes the second spot. The actual subject, veel opa's, simply follows it.
Why is it veel instead of vele here?
When you use it to mean "a lot of" or "many" right before a noun, you almost always use the short form veel. You might occasionally see vele in very formal written Dutch, but in everyday language, veel opa's is exactly right.
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