Breakdown of We bestelden een nieuwe bank voor het huis.
een
a/an
het huis
the house
bestellen
to order
de bank
the sofa / the couch
nieuw
new
voor
for (on behalf of)
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We bestelden een nieuwe bank voor het huis.
How do we know to use -den at the end of bestelden?
The verb is bestellen (to order). To get the stem, we remove -en, leaving bestel. Because the stem ends in l—which is a voiced consonant not found in the 't kofschip memory rule—we add -de for the singular past tense and -den for the plural. Since the subject is We (plural), it becomes bestelden.
The infinitive is bestellen. Why isn't the past tense spelled bestellden with a double 'l'?
Dutch spelling rules avoid double consonants at the end of a syllable when they aren't needed to keep a vowel short. The stem of bestellen is simply bestel. When we add the plural past ending -den, we just stick them together to make bestelden.
Why is there an -e on the end of nieuwe, if it comes after een?
Because bank is a de-word (de bank). Adjectives in front of a de-word always get an -e ending, even after een (a). You only drop the -e when you have a het-word coming after een.
I thought bank meant a financial bank. Can it mean 'sofa' too?
Yes! The word bank has two common meanings in Dutch. Depending on the context, it can mean a bank where you put your money, or a sofa/couch. Since they ordered a new one for the house, 'sofa' is the clear meaning here.
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