Breakdown of Wij hebben oude meubels in de opslag staan.
wij
we
oud
old
hebben
to have
in
in
staan
to stand
het meubel
the piece of furniture
de opslag
the storage
Questions & Answers about Wij hebben oude meubels in de opslag staan.
Why do we add staan at the end instead of just saying Wij hebben oude meubels in de opslag?
You could leave it out, but Dutch speakers strongly prefer using posture verbs to describe how something occupies a space. Because furniture rests on a base, staan is the natural choice. Using this 'hebben + object + location + posture verb' structure emphasizes the physical presence of the items in that location.
Could staan go somewhere else in the sentence, for example right after hebben?
No, in this specific construction the posture verb must go at the very end of the clause. The fixed order is hebben + direct object (oude meubels) + location (in de opslag) + bare infinitive posture verb (staan).
English uses the uncountable word 'furniture'. Why is it plural (meubels) here, and could I use meubilair instead?
In Dutch, meubel is a countable noun meaning 'a piece of furniture', so the plural meubels is very common. You could indeed use the uncountable collective noun meubilair instead. If you did, the sentence would be Wij hebben oud meubilair in de opslag staan.
Why does the adjective oude get an -e at the end in this sentence?
Because meubels is plural. As a quick refresher: whenever an adjective comes before a plural noun, it always gets an -e ending, regardless of whether the singular noun is a de-word or a het-word.
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