Breakdown of De dieren hun verblijf in de benches gaat perfect.
in
in
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
het dier
the animal
hun
their
perfect
perfect
de bench
the dog crate
het verblijf
the stay
Questions & Answers about De dieren hun verblijf in de benches gaat perfect.
How does the possessive structure De dieren hun verblijf work here?
This is a common colloquial way to indicate possession in spoken Dutch. Instead of using the formal het verblijf van de dieren (the stay of the animals), you use the possessor (de dieren), followed by the unstressed possessive pronoun (hun), and then the possessed object (verblijf). For plural possessors, hun is the correct pronoun to use.
Why is the verb gaat singular when the sentence starts with the plural De dieren?
The grammatical subject of the sentence is the singular noun verblijf (stay), not De dieren. The phrase De dieren hun just tells us whose stay it is, functioning much like the word their in English. Because verblijf is singular, the verb gaat must also be singular.
Does the word benches mean the animals are sitting on park benches?
No, in Dutch, the English loanword bench (plural benches) specifically refers to a dog crate or an indoor animal wire cage, not a piece of furniture for sitting. If you wanted to talk about a park bench, you would use the Dutch word bank.
Why is the word perfect used without an ending like perfecte?
In Dutch, adverbs (words that describe how an action happens, like how the stay is going) use the exact same form as the basic adjective. Unlike English which adds an -ly ending, Dutch simply uses the base word. It does not get an -e ending here because it is an adverb modifying the verb gaat, rather than an adjective attached to a noun.
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