Er zijn zilveren en gouden ringen.

Questions & Answers about Er zijn zilveren en gouden ringen.

Why do zilver and goud get an -en ending here?
In Dutch, adjectives that describe what something is made of (material adjectives) almost always get a fixed -en ending. So the noun zilver becomes the adjective zilveren, and goud becomes gouden.
Do zilveren and gouden ever drop that -en ending, like normal adjectives sometimes do?
No, and that is what makes material adjectives special! Unlike normal adjectives, they never drop their ending. They always keep the -en suffix, whether they are used with a de word, a het word, singular, or plural.
Both the adjectives (zilveren, gouden) and the noun (ringen) end in -en. Is that just a coincidence?
Yes! For the adjectives, the -en shows they are materials. For the noun, the -en just makes it plural. Ringen is simply the plural form of the noun ring.
Why does this sentence start with Er zijn instead of Daar zijn for "There are"?
You use er zijn (or er is) to state that something exists in general, exactly like the English "there are" or "there is". You would only use daar zijn if you were pointing out a physical location (meaning "Over there are...").

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