Questions & Answers about De kat slaapt achter de deur.
Is achter related to the other prepositions in this lesson?
Yes! While this lesson focuses heavily on in, op, and bij, achter (behind) is another very common preposition of place. It works the exact same way to describe where a noun is located.
Why does the verb slaapt have two 'a's?
The full verb is slapen (to sleep). To keep the long 'a' sound when making the base form for he/she/it, Dutch spelling rules require us to double the vowel. That gives us slaap, and then we add a 't' because the subject is De kat.
Can I change the word order to put the location first?
Yes, you can say Achter de deur slaapt de kat. When you move a location phrase to the front of a Dutch sentence, the verb must stay in the second position. This pushes the subject (de kat) to the other side of the verb.