Word
Die fiets is van mij.
Meaning
That bike is mine.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die fiets is van mij.
zijn
to be
de fiets
the bicycle
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
mij
me
Questions & Answers about Die fiets is van mij.
Why is it Die fiets and not Dat fiets?
Because fiets is a de-word (de fiets). In Dutch, you use die (that) and deze (this) for de-words. You only use dat and dit for het-words.
Why does it say van mij instead of a single word for 'mine'?
To say something is 'mine', 'yours', or 'his', Dutch most commonly uses van (of) plus the object pronoun. So van mij literally means 'of me', but it is the standard, everyday way to say 'mine'.
Could I use the unstressed pronoun me and say van me?
You could in very casual speech, but mij is much better here. Since the whole point of the sentence is to clarify who owns the bike, you naturally use the stressed pronoun mij to emphasize that it belongs to you and no one else.
How would I change this sentence to say 'That bike is yours'?
You simply swap out the pronoun at the end. For 'yours', you would say Die fiets is van jou (informal) or Die fiets is van u (formal).