Questions & Answers about Ik heb tulpen nodig, dus ik neem er drie roze.
Why do we use er in ik neem er drie roze, and what does it mean?
This is the quantitative er. It means "of them" and refers back to the noun tulpen so you don't have to repeat it. Whenever you state a quantity (like drie) of a noun that was mentioned earlier, you must include er.
In English, the translation says "three pink ones". Why isn't there a word for "ones" in the Dutch sentence?
Dutch doesn't use a filler word like "ones". Instead, you just leave the noun out and use the quantitative er along with the number and the adjective. The phrase er drie roze literally means "of them three pink", which sounds incomplete in English but is perfectly natural in Dutch.
Why doesn't the adjective roze get an extra -e at the end, since it refers to tulpen (a plural noun)?
Usually, an adjective describing a plural noun gets an -e ending (for example, you would say er drie rode for red tulips). However, roze is an exception. Because it already ends in an unstressed "e" sound, it never takes an extra -e. The color oranje works exactly the same way.
Why is the word order dus ik neem instead of dus neem ik?