Word
Starend naar het scherm drinkt hij koffie.
Meaning
Staring at the screen, he drinks coffee.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Starend naar het scherm drinkt hij koffie.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
drinken
to drink
naar
to
de koffie
the coffee
Questions & Answers about Starend naar het scherm drinkt hij koffie.
How is the word starend formed here?
It is the present participle of the verb staren (to stare). To make it, you simply add -d to the full infinitive: staren + d = starend.
Why is the word order drinkt hij instead of hij drinkt?
Because the sentence starts with the phrase Starend naar het scherm. In Dutch, when a sentence starts with something other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places. This is called inversion. The main verb drinkt must be in the second logical position, right before the subject hij.
Why do we use naar to translate the English word at?
In English you look or stare at something, but in Dutch, verbs related to looking (like kijken and staren) use the preposition naar, which literally means towards.
Would starend get an -e at the end if the subject was plural?
No. When the present participle is used as an adverb to describe how an action is done, it never changes its form. It stays starend regardless of who is doing the action. It only gets an -e ending when used as an adjective right before a noun, like in de starende man.