Breakdown of Het spijt ons echt.
het
it
ons
us (object)
echt
real; really (genuinely)
spijten
to be sorry (het spijt me)
Questions & Answers about Het spijt ons echt.
Why does this sentence use ons (us) instead of wij (we)?
In Dutch, you do not say 'we are sorry' using 'we' as the subject. Instead, you use the set phrase het spijt (it causes regret) followed by an object pronoun. So het spijt ons literally translates to 'it causes us regret.'
Can I say 'Wij zijn echt spijt' to match the English grammar?
No, because spijt is a verb here (from the infinitive spijten), not an adjective like the English word 'sorry'. You cannot use the verb 'to be' (zijn) with it. You must always use the structure het spijt followed by the person who feels sorry.
How would I change this to say 'I am really sorry'?
Because the subject of this phrase is always Het, you only need to change the object pronoun. To say 'I am really sorry', you simply change ons to mij (me) and say Het spijt mij echt.
Where does the word echt (really) belong in the sentence structure?
Adverbs like echt usually come right after the object pronoun (ons). If you wanted to add a time word, like vandaag (today), time usually comes before other details, so it would be: Het spijt ons vandaag echt.
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