Breakdown of Wij bestellen een frisdrank in het café.
bestellen
to order
het café
the cafe
de frisdrank
the soft drink
Questions & Answers about Wij bestellen een frisdrank in het café.
This lesson is about plural nouns with an '-s' suffix. How would I make café plural?
To make café plural, you add 's (apostrophe-s) to get café's. In Dutch, if a noun ends in a single open vowel sound (like a, i, o, u, or é), we usually add an apostrophe before the plural -s so the pronunciation of the vowel is preserved.
Would the plural of frisdrank also use an '-s'?
No, it becomes frisdranken. Nouns ending in a consonant usually take the -en suffix for their plural form. The -s suffix you are learning in this lesson is mostly used for nouns ending in a vowel, or for many modern loanwords from other languages.
Does frisdrank literally mean "fresh drink"?
Yes, it is a combination of fris (fresh or cool) and drank (drink). However, in everyday Dutch, frisdrank specifically means soda or a carbonated soft drink, not just any fresh beverage.
Why is the verb bestellen used here instead of bestelt?
The subject of the sentence is wij (we), which is plural. In Dutch, plural subjects almost always use the full dictionary form (the infinitive) of the verb, which normally ends in -en.
Why do we use het for café instead of de?
Café is a neuter noun, so it must use het for "the". A handy tip for A1 learners: many common words borrowed from French (like café, dessert, or restaurant) are het words in Dutch.
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