Breakdown of De kalveren en de lammeren staan in de wei.
en
and
in
in
staan
to stand
het kalf
the calf
het lam
the lamb
de wei
the meadow
Questions & Answers about De kalveren en de lammeren staan in de wei.
What is the singular of kalveren, and why does the 'f' change to a 'v'?
The singular is kalf. It gets the irregular plural ending -eren. Also, in Dutch, when a word ends in f and we add an ending that starts with a vowel (like -eren), the f usually changes to a v. So, kalf becomes kalveren.
What is the singular form of lammeren, and why is there a double 'm'?
The singular is lam (lamb). It also gets the irregular -eren ending. Because lam has a short 'a' sound, we have to double the m before adding the ending to keep that short sound. If we just wrote lameren, it would sound like a long 'a'.
Why use staan (stand) instead of just saying they 'are' in the meadow?
Dutch loves to be specific about how things are located. Instead of using zijn (to be), you will often see position verbs like staan (to stand), liggen (to lie), or zitten (to sit). Since calves and lambs are animals standing on their legs, we say they staan in de wei.
I have seen the word weide for meadow. Is wei the same thing?
Yes! Wei is just a shorter, very common way to say weide. Both mean meadow or pasture, but you will hear wei a lot in everyday Dutch.
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