Breakdown of Wij eten het ontbijt om acht uur.
wij
we
eten
to eat
acht
eight
het uur
the hour / o'clock
om
at (time)
het ontbijt
the breakfast
Questions & Answers about Wij eten het ontbijt om acht uur.
How would I add "in the morning" to this sentence using the routine words from this lesson?
You would use 's morgens or 's ochtends. If you place it at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize the routine, remember to swap your subject and verb: 's Morgens eten wij het ontbijt om acht uur.
In English we just say "eat breakfast." Why is it het ontbijt here?
Dutch often uses definite articles (de or het) with meals, so saying "the breakfast" (het ontbijt) sounds very natural. However, it is also perfectly fine to drop it and just say Wij eten ontbijt, just like in English.
Is there a single verb for "having breakfast" instead of saying eten het ontbijt?
Yes! Dutch has the handy verb ontbijten (to have breakfast). A very common and slightly shorter way to say this exact sentence is simply: Wij ontbijten om acht uur.
Why do we use the word om here?
When stating a specific time on the clock in Dutch, you always use the preposition om. While om often translates to "around" in other contexts, for clock times it means exactly "at" (like om acht uur for "at eight o'clock").
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