Word
De bloemist begint bloemen te schikken en zij kiest er vijf mooie.
Meaning
The florist begins to arrange flowers, and she chooses five beautiful ones.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De bloemist begint bloemen te schikken en zij kiest er vijf mooie.
zij
she
en
and
vijf
five
beginnen
to begin
Questions & Answers about De bloemist begint bloemen te schikken en zij kiest er vijf mooie.
Why do we use er in zij kiest er vijf mooie?
This is the quantitative er. It is used to refer back to a noun we are counting that was already mentioned. Here, it stands in for bloemen, so the phrase translates as choosing five beautiful ones of them.
Why does mooie have an -e ending if there is no noun immediately following it?
When we use an adjective with a number and quantitative er, the adjective still behaves as if the noun were there. Since you would normally say vijf mooie bloemen, you keep the -e ending even when bloemen is omitted. Think of it like adding the word ones in English.
Why is te used before schikken?
The verb beginnen requires te plus an infinitive verb to show what action is starting. Unlike modal verbs which take a bare infinitive, verbs that express starting, stopping, or trying need te.
Why is the word order normal after en instead of reversing the verb and subject?
The word en is a coordinating conjunction, meaning it connects two main clauses without changing their word order. The second part keeps the standard subject-verb order: zij kiest.