Breakdown of Zij zijn allebei aardig.
aardig
nice / kind (friendly person)
allebei
both (of the two, everyday)
Questions & Answers about Zij zijn allebei aardig.
The lesson mentions beide(n) for 'both', but this sentence uses allebei. What's the difference?
Allebei and beide(n) both mean 'both'. In everyday spoken and written Dutch, allebei is much more common. Beide or beiden sounds a bit more formal. For a simple sentence like this, allebei is the most natural choice.
If I wanted to use the formal version here, would it be beide or beiden?
It would be beiden. You add the -n to beide because it refers to people and stands entirely on its own (it is not followed by a noun). So, the formal version of this sentence is Zij zijn beiden aardig.
Why is allebei placed after the verb zijn?
In Dutch, distributive words like allebei (both) and allemaal (all) often act like adverbs that point back to the subject (Zij). They belong in the middle part of the sentence, after the conjugated verb. Unlike English where you can say 'Both of them are...', Dutch prefers the structure Zij zijn allebei... (They are both...).
Since Zij is plural here, why doesn't aardig get an -e at the end?
Because aardig is used after a linking verb (zijn) to describe the subject, rather than sitting directly in front of a noun. In Dutch, these 'predicative' adjectives never get an -e ending, even when the subject is plural.
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