Word
Wij hebben goede timmerlui nodig, en we zoeken er twee snelle.
Meaning
We need good carpenters, and we are looking for two fast ones.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wij hebben goede timmerlui nodig, en we zoeken er twee snelle.
en
and
wij
we
hebben
to have
twee
two
Questions & Answers about Wij hebben goede timmerlui nodig, en we zoeken er twee snelle.
What is the singular form of timmerlui, and how does this plural work?
The singular is timmerman (carpenter). For many traditional professions ending in -man, the plural drops -man and adds either the suffix -lui or -lieden.
Could I use timmerlieden instead of timmerlui in this sentence?
Yes, both are correct plurals for timmerman. The suffix -lui is more common in everyday spoken Dutch, while -lieden sounds a bit more formal or traditional.
Why do we need the word er in we zoeken er twee snelle?
This is the quantitative er. When you state an amount of something mentioned earlier (here, "two") without repeating the noun itself, Dutch requires you to use er. It works like saying "two of them" in English.
Why does snelle get an -e ending when there is no noun immediately following it?
Even though the noun is omitted to avoid repetition (meaning "fast ones" instead of "fast carpenters"), the adjective snelle keeps the ending it would have if the noun were still written. Plural nouns always get the -e ending on their adjectives.