Breakdown of Er zit iets liefs in vaders envelop.
in
in
de vader
the father
er
there (existential)
iets
something
zitten
to be (located) in
lief
sweet (kind, dear)
de envelop
the envelope
Questions & Answers about Er zit iets liefs in vaders envelop.
Why is there an -s at the end of liefs?
This is the rule for partitive adjectives! When an adjective comes after words like iets (something), niets (nothing), wat (some/something), or veel (a lot), it gets an extra -s. The base word is lief (sweet/nice), so it becomes iets liefs (something sweet).
Why does the sentence use zit instead of is?
Could I say iets zoets instead of iets liefs?
Only if you mean sweet as in sugary! In Dutch, zoet describes the taste of sugar or candy. Lief is used for 'sweet' in the sense of kind, lovely, or endearing. Here, it implies a nice message, a card, or a loving gesture.
Why is there no apostrophe in vaders (father's)?
In Dutch, the possessive -s is usually attached directly to the word without an apostrophe. An apostrophe is only used if adding an s directly would change how the vowel sounds (for example, opa's). Because vader ends with a consonant sound, we can safely just add the -s to make vaders.
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