Word
Zij hoeft de eigenares niet te betalen.
Meaning
She does not need to pay the female owner.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Zij hoeft de eigenares niet te betalen.
How do we get the word eigenares for "female owner"?
The base noun for "owner" is eigenaar. To create the feminine form, Dutch often adds the suffix -es to professions or personal nouns ending in -aar. So, eigenaar becomes eigenares. You will also see this pattern in words like leraar (male/general teacher) becoming lerares (female teacher).
How does the hoeft ... niet te construction work here?
The verb hoeven means "to need to" or "to have to," but it is almost exclusively used in negative sentences (with niet or geen). When used with another verb like betalen, you must place te before the infinitive at the very end of the sentence. Together, hoeft ... niet te betalen simply translates to "does not have to pay" or "does not need to pay."
Why is niet placed after de eigenares instead of right after the verb hoeft?
In Dutch word order, the negating word niet is placed after a specific direct object. Because de eigenares has the definite article de (meaning we are talking about a specific, known owner), niet must come after it rather than before it.
Could I just use ze instead of Zij?