Word
Zij stuurt het mij vandaag.
Meaning
She is sending it to me today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Zij stuurt het mij vandaag.
Why does het come before mij? In English we often say "sends me it".
In Dutch, when both the direct object (what is being sent, het) and the indirect object (who receives it, mij) are pronouns, the direct object usually comes first. So it is strictly het mij (it me) and never mij het.
The translation says "to me", but there is no Dutch word for "to" (like aan) in the sentence. Why?
You can leave out the preposition aan (to) when the indirect object (mij) is placed right after the verb or the direct object pronoun. If you really wanted to use aan, the word order would change and it would usually go at the end: Zij stuurt het vandaag aan mij.
Could I use ze instead of zij, and me instead of mij here?
Absolutely. Zij and mij are the emphatic (stressed) forms, used to highlight who is doing the action or receiving it (e.g., she is sending it, not him). If you are just stating the fact without extra emphasis, Ze stuurt het me vandaag is actually more common in daily spoken Dutch.
Why is the simple present tense stuurt translated as "is sending"?