Word
De fiets van mijn broer is nieuw.
Meaning
My brother's bike is new.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about De fiets van mijn broer is nieuw.
Why does the sentence use van instead of just saying mijn broers fiets?
While mijn broers fiets is grammatically correct, Dutch speakers very often use the van (of) construction to show possession. Saying de fiets van mijn broer (literally: the bike of my brother) sounds very natural and is the most common way to express "my brother's bike" in daily speech.
Why is the adjective nieuw without an -e at the end?
In Dutch, adjectives usually get an extra -e when they are placed directly in front of the noun they describe (like in de nieuwe fiets). Because the adjective in this sentence comes after the verb is, it stays in its basic dictionary form: nieuw.
Does the De at the start of the sentence belong to fiets or broer?
The article De belongs to fiets (de fiets means the bike). The sentence is about the bike, so it takes the lead. Even though broer is also a "de" word, the grammatical gender of the owner does not change the article of the object that is being owned.