Breakdown of Ik heb niets in die la verstopt!
ik
I
hebben
to have
in
in
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
niets
nothing
de la
the drawer
verstoppen
to hide
Questions & Answers about Ik heb niets in die la verstopt!
Can I say niet iets instead of niets here?
You could technically be understood if you said niet iets (not something), but niets is the standard, natural way to say "nothing" in Dutch. It is exactly like the difference in English between "I have not hidden something" and "I have hidden nothing."
Where does niets belong in a sentence with a two-part verb like this?
niets acts as the direct object here (the "thing" you are not hiding). It goes after your conjugated helping verb (heb) but before the prepositional phrase (in die la) and the past participle at the very end (verstopt).
I thought past participles start with ge-. Why is it just verstopt?
The verb here is verstoppen (to hide). Because it starts with the prefix ver-, it is an inseparable verb. Verbs starting with prefixes like be-, ge-, ont-, and ver- do not get an extra ge- added to them when making the past participle.
Is la a full word? Why do we use die with it?
la is the very common, everyday word for "drawer" (the formal, longer version is lade). Because it is a de word (de la), we must use die to say "that". If it were a het word, you would use dat instead.
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