Breakdown of Wij wonen niet op een platte planeet.
een
a/an
niet
not
wij
we
wonen
to live
op
on
plat
flat
de planeet
the planet
Questions & Answers about Wij wonen niet op een platte planeet.
Why is niet placed right before op een platte planeet?
In Dutch main clauses, niet is placed before prepositional phrases that describe a place or location (like op een platte planeet). It would sound unnatural to put it at the very end of this sentence.
Why is the adjective spelled platte instead of just plat?
Adjectives usually get an -e added to them when they come before a noun. Because plat has a short 'a' vowel sound followed by a single consonant, we have to double the t to keep that short vowel sound when adding the -e. This makes it platte.
How does this sentence prove that planeet is a de word?
We can tell it is de planeet by looking at the phrase een platte. If it were a het word, an adjective following een would not get the -e ending (it would be een plat planeet). Because the adjective gets the -e, planeet must be a de word!
Why do we use the preposition op instead of in?
Just like in English, you live "on" the surface of a planet, so Dutch uses op. If you were to say in een planeet, it would mean you live underneath the ground, deep inside the planet's core.
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