Breakdown of Zijn er wetenschappelijke laboratoria in dit gebied?
zijn
to be
in
in
dit
this (neuter)
er
there (existential)
Questions & Answers about Zijn er wetenschappelijke laboratoria in dit gebied?
Why is the plural of laboratorium written as laboratoria here?
Words borrowed from Latin that end in -um often take an -a in the plural in Dutch. This is why laboratorium becomes laboratoria. You can also use the regular Dutch plural laboratoriums, which is correct and common in everyday speech, but laboratoria is preferred in formal or written contexts.
Why does the adjective wetenschappelijke have an -e at the end?
When an adjective comes directly before a plural noun, it always gets an -e at the end. It does not matter if the singular noun is a de word or a het word. Since laboratoria is plural, the base word wetenschappelijk gets the -e ending.
Why do we use dit instead of deze for this area?
The Dutch word for area is a het word: het gebied. To say this before a singular het word, you always use dit. If it were a de word, or if the noun were plural, you would use deze instead.
How does zijn er work in this sentence?