Learn Dutch: Ik zie de lachende kunstenaar het landschap schilderen. - I see the laughing artist paint the landscape.

Lachen is the verb "to laugh." To make it a present participle meaning "laughing," you add -d to get lachend. Because it acts as an adjective in front of the de-word kunstenaar, it follows normal adjective rules and gets an -e ending, making it lachende.

Why doesn't schilderen have the word te in front of it?

Verbs of perception, like zien (to see) and horen (to hear), do not use te before the second verb. Just like in English where we say "I see the artist paint" rather than "to paint," Dutch uses the plain infinitive schilderen.

Why is schilderen at the very end of the sentence?

When a Dutch main clause has two verbs, the conjugated verb (zie) takes the second position, and the other verb in its infinitive form (schilderen) gets pushed to the end. This creates a "verb bracket" around the objects de lachende kunstenaar and het landschap.

If I want to translate this as "I see the laughing artist painting," would I use a present participle for painting too?