Learn Dutch: Zijn er veel risico's? - Are there many risks?

In Dutch, when a noun ends in a single vowel that sounds long (like a, i, o, u, or y), we use an apostrophe before the plural -s. This keeps the pronunciation of the vowel long. If we just wrote it as one word, it would break Dutch spelling rules for vowel length. Since risico ends in an open -o, its plural becomes risico's.

Why do we use zijn er here instead of is er?

Zijn er translates to 'are there'. We use the plural verb zijn because we are talking about multiple risks (risico's). If you wanted to ask about a single risk, you would use the singular: Is er een risico? (Is there a risk?).

Why is the word for 'many' veel instead of vele?

In everyday Dutch, veel is used for both 'much' (uncountable things) and 'many' (countable things, like plural risks). You might occasionally see vele used with plural words, but it sounds very formal. For standard daily use, veel risico's is exactly right.

Why does the sentence start with the verb Zijn?