Word
Kun je die tas tillen en hem er bovenop leggen?
Meaning
Can you lift that bag and lay it on top?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Kun je die tas tillen en hem er bovenop leggen?
en
and
de tas
the bag
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
kunnen
can
Questions & Answers about Kun je die tas tillen en hem er bovenop leggen?
Why does this sentence use leggen instead of liggen?
Leggen means "to lay" or "to put (down)", and it is a transitive verb, which means it requires a direct object. In this sentence, the action is being done to hem (the bag). If you were describing the bag already resting on top by itself, you would use the intransitive verb liggen (to lie): De tas ligt er bovenop.
Why is the bag referred to as hem (him) instead of het (it)?
In Dutch, tas is a de word. Most de words for inanimate objects are treated as masculine. When referring back to them, you use hij for the subject and hem for the object. You only use het (it) to refer back to het words.
What is the function of er bovenop?
It means "on top of it". In Dutch, you cannot combine a preposition like bovenop with the pronoun het (it). Instead, you replace "it" with er (there) and place it before the preposition. So, instead of saying "bovenop het", you say er bovenop.
Why are tillen and leggen at the very end of their parts of the sentence?