Word
Opa's bril is ook kwijt.
Meaning
Grandpa's glasses are also lost.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Opa's bril is ook kwijt.
zijn
to be
ook
also / -ever (concessive particle)
de opa
the grandpa
de bril
the glasses
Questions & Answers about Opa's bril is ook kwijt.
Why is there an apostrophe in opa's instead of just adding an s?
In Dutch, we add an apostrophe before the possessive -s if the name or family word ends in a single, open vowel like a, i, o, u, or y. This rule exists to keep the vowel sounding "long". If we just wrote opas, the rules of Dutch spelling would make it sound like a short "ah" instead of a long "aa".
Could I say de bril van opa instead of opa's bril?
Yes, absolutely! De bril van opa (literally: the glasses of grandpa) is perfectly correct and very commonly used. Using the possessive -s in opa's bril is just a slightly shorter way to express the exact same meaning.
Why does the Dutch sentence use the singular verb is when the English translation says "glasses are"?
In English, "glasses" is a plural word. However, in Dutch, a pair of glasses is just one single object: de bril. Because bril is singular, we must use the singular verb is. If you were talking about multiple pairs of glasses, you would say brillen zijn.
How exactly do you use the word kwijt?