Word
Morgen koop ik drie liter melk voor het feest.
Meaning
Tomorrow I will buy three liters of milk for the party.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Morgen koop ik drie liter melk voor het feest.
Why is there no word for "of" in drie liter melk?
In Dutch, when you use a unit of measurement (like liter) with a substance (like melk), you put them right next to each other. You don't use a preposition like van (of). This grammatical feature is called juxtaposition.
Why isn't liter pluralized since it's "three" liters?
When a precise number comes before a standard unit of measurement, weight, or time (such as liter, kilo, meter, or uur), the unit stays singular in Dutch. That is why we say drie liter instead of drie liters.
If I wanted to say "three glasses of milk" instead of liters, would "glasses" also stay singular?
No, it would become plural: drie glazen melk. The singular rule only applies to exact, standardized units of measurement. Containers or physical objects used as measures, like a glass (glas), bottle (fles), or piece (stuk), do get pluralized. Notice, however, that you still drop the word for "of"!
Just a quick refresher: why is it koop ik instead of ik koop?