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Questions & Answers about De jongen telt de boeken.
Wait, is jongen plural? It ends in -en.
No, jongen is singular here and means "boy". While -en is the most common plural ending in Dutch, a few singular words just naturally end in -en. If it were plural ("the boys"), you would add an "s" to make it de jongens.
I learned that "book" is a het word (het boek). Why is it de boeken here?
You are exactly right that it is het boek in the singular! However, in Dutch, all plural nouns use the article de, no matter what article they use in the singular. Since he is counting multiple books (boeken), we use de.
What is the dictionary form of the verb telt?
The full verb is tellen (to count). Because our subject is de jongen (a "he"), we take the stem of the verb (tel) and add a -t to get telt. This is a very useful verb to practice alongside your numbers!
How do you pronounce the oe in boeken?
The Dutch oe combination makes an "oo" sound, very similar to the vowel sound in the English words "zoo" or "boot".