Questions & Answers about Wij vragen naar het antwoord.
Why is the word naar used here to mean "about"?
In Dutch, the verb vragen (to ask) is usually paired with the preposition naar when you are asking for information about something, or asking for a person. It is helpful to think of vragen naar as a fixed combination meaning "to inquire after."
Since this lesson is about the imperative mood, how would I turn this into a command like "Ask about the answer!"?
To give a command in Dutch, you use the stem of the verb and drop the subject pronoun (wij). The stem of vragen is vraag. So, the command becomes: Vraag naar het antwoord!
Why is it het antwoord instead of de antwoord?
Antwoord is a neuter noun in Dutch, which means it takes the "het" article. There is no hard rule for why it is neuter, so it is best to memorize the word as het antwoord right from the start.
Could I say We vragen naar het antwoord instead?
Yes, absolutely. Wij is the emphasized version of "we." You use wij when you want to put special focus on who is doing the asking. If you are just stating a neutral fact, we is perfectly fine and actually more common in everyday speech.
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