Breakdown of Ik schrijf een letter met het potlood.
schrijven
to write
het potlood
the pencil
de letter
the letter (of the alphabet)
Questions & Answers about Ik schrijf een letter met het potlood.
How would I use the grammar from this lesson to ask 'What are you writing with?'
You would use waarmee (waar + met). The question would be: Waarmee schrijf je? (What are you writing with?). In Dutch, when we ask questions about things involving a preposition (like met), we combine waar and the preposition instead of saying 'wat met'.
Does letter in this sentence mean a letter I send in the mail?
No, this is a classic false friend! In Dutch, een letter refers to a letter of the alphabet (like A, B, or C). If you want to talk about a letter you write to a friend and put in the mail, you must use the word brief.
Why is it het potlood?
Potlood (pencil) is a neuter noun, so it takes the article het. It is helpful to memorize het potlood as a set phrase, especially since another common writing tool, de pen, takes de.
What happens to the word order if I start the sentence with Met het potlood to emphasize the tool?
The subject and verb will swap places, a rule called inversion. The sentence becomes: Met het potlood schrijf ik een letter. This happens because the verb (schrijf) must always stay in the second position of a main clause.
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