Questions & Answers about Het kind is aan het kleuren.
How exactly does is aan het kleuren mean "is colouring"?
Why do we use the full infinitive kleuren instead of kleurt?
In the aan het structure, the helping verb zijn is the one that gets conjugated to match the subject (here, is for het kind). The main action verb at the end always stays in its full dictionary form (the infinitive).
If I wanted to say "The child is colouring a picture", where would the object go?
In Dutch, the object goes before the aan het part. You would say: Het kind is een tekening aan het kleuren. The aan het + infinitive chunk gets pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Just to review, why is it het kind and not de kind?
Kind (child) is a neuter noun. Singular nouns in Dutch are either common (taking de) or neuter (taking het). Since there are no foolproof rules for guessing the gender, it is always best to memorize the word together with its article: het kind.
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