Word
De muis ging in het gat in de vloer.
Meaning
The mouse went into the hole in the floor.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De muis ging in het gat in de vloer.
in
in
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
de muis
the mouse
het gat
the hole
Questions & Answers about De muis ging in het gat in de vloer.
What verb is ging from, and how would I say "the mice went"?
ging is the irregular simple past tense of gaan (to go). Since De muis is singular, we use ging. If it were plural ("the mice"), you would add -en to make it gingen.
The word in is used twice. Does it mean both "into" and "in"?
Exactly. In Dutch, in can show movement towards something ("into the hole") as well as a fixed location ("in the floor"). You do not need a separate word for "into" here.
Why does the sentence use het for gat but de for vloer?
Dutch has two definite articles for "the". vloer (floor) is a common noun so it takes de, while gat (hole) is a neuter noun so it takes het. You just have to memorize these as you learn new vocabulary.
How would the word order change if I started the sentence with Gisteren (Yesterday)?
Dutch uses a "verb second" word order. If you put Gisteren at the front, the verb ging must immediately follow it to stay in the second position. The subject de muis then moves after the verb, making it: Gisteren ging de muis in het gat in de vloer.