Word
Er liggen veel schepen in de haven, waaronder een heel oud schip.
Meaning
There are many ships lying in the harbor, including a very old ship.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Er liggen veel schepen in de haven, waaronder een heel oud schip.
een
a/an
oud
old
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
Questions & Answers about Er liggen veel schepen in de haven, waaronder een heel oud schip.
Why does "including" translate to waaronder in this sentence?
Waaronder is a relative pronominal adverb made of waar (where) + onder (under/among). While it literally means "under which" or "among which," it is the standard Dutch way to say "including" when singling out a specific example from a broader category you just mentioned (here, the many ships).
Why use Er liggen instead of just Er zijn?
When describing where things are located, Dutch strongly prefers verbs of posture over zijn (to be). Because ships sit flat in the water, they are seen as resting horizontally, making liggen the most idiomatic choice here.
The singular is schip, so why is the plural schepen with an 'e' instead of "schippen"?
The word schip has an irregular plural. The short 'i' changes to a long 'e' sound in the plural form schepen. This is an older, irregular vowel shift in the language that simply needs to be memorized.
Why does oud drop the -e ending in een heel oud schip?