Breakdown of Er zit een gaatje in de kurk.
een
a/an
in
in
er
there (existential)
zitten
to be (located) in
het gat
the hole
de kurk
the cork
Questions & Answers about Er zit een gaatje in de kurk.
Why is it gaatje with a double 'a' when the base word for hole is gat with a single 'a'?
This is an example of an irregular diminutive with a vowel shift. Some nouns with a short vowel in their base form lengthen that vowel when they become diminutives. The short 'a' in gat becomes a long 'aa' in gaatje.
Is this vowel shift related to how the plural of gat is formed?
Exactly! Just like the short 'a' in gat becomes a long sound in the plural gaten, it also lengthens in the diminutive gaatje. You will see this same short-to-long pattern in a few other common words, such as glas becoming glaasje or pad becoming paadje.
Why does the sentence use zit instead of is for 'there is'?
Dutch frequently uses posture verbs like zitten, staan, and liggen to describe where things are located, rather than just using zijn (to be). Because a hole is located inside or within the structure of the cork, zitten (to sit) is the natural choice to express this physical containment.
I have seen het kurk before. Why is it de kurk here?
Kurk is one of those tricky nouns that can take either article depending on its meaning. De kurk refers to a countable object, like a specific wine stopper. Het kurk refers to the uncountable material itself. Since this sentence talks about a physical stopper having a hole in it, de is correct.
Learn Er zit een gaatje in de kurk and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free