Questions & Answers about We horen de zanger een lied zingen.
Why is there no te before zingen?
Because horen (to hear) is a verb of perception. Just like in English ("hear the singer sing", not "to sing"), Dutch verbs of perception like horen, zien (to see), and voelen (to feel) are followed by the second verb without te.
Why is zingen placed at the very end of the sentence?
When a Dutch sentence has two verbs, the main verb (here: horen) takes the second position in the sentence, and the other verb (here: zingen) gets pushed all the way to the end.
Does de zanger belong to horen or zingen?
It works with both! De zanger is the direct object you hear, but it is also the "doer" of the singing. When using verbs of perception, the object you perceive is the one performing the action at the end of the sentence.
The dictionary says it is het lied (the song). Why does the sentence say een lied instead of something else?
Remember that the indefinite article een (a/an) is used for both de words and het words. Even though it is het lied, it becomes een lied when you mean "a song".