De bon ligt op de tafel.

Dutch very often uses a position verb for location instead of just to be.

Here, liggen means to lie or to be lying, and it is commonly used for things that are resting on a surface, especially flat objects like a receipt, book, or paper.

So:

• De bon ligt op de tafel. = the receipt is lying / is on the table

You can sometimes hear is in Dutch, but in a sentence like this, ligt sounds more natural.

Ligt is the third-person singular present tense of liggen.

The infinitive is:

• liggen = to lie

Present tense:

• ik lig = I lie / am lying
• jij ligt = you lie / are lying
• hij/zij/het ligt = he/she/it lies / is lying

Because de bon is singular, Dutch uses ligt.

In Dutch, singular nouns usually take either de or het.

Both bon and tafel are de-words, so you get:

• de bon
• de tafel

Unfortunately, whether a noun takes de or het often has to be learned with the noun itself. There are patterns, but many learners simply memorize the article together with the word.

A useful habit is to learn nouns like this:

• de bon
• de tafel
• het boek

not just bon, tafel, boek.

Not always. Bon can have a few meanings depending on context, such as:

• receipt
• voucher
• coupon
• sometimes a kind of ticket or slip

In this sentence, it most naturally means receipt, but the exact meaning depends on the situation.

Both are possible, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

• op de tafel = on the table, a specific table
• op tafel = on the table / on the tabletop, often more general or idiomatic

In many situations, op tafel sounds very natural if the exact table is not important.
But if you mean a particular table, op de tafel is perfectly correct.

So:

• De bon ligt op de tafel. = The receipt is on the table.
• De bon ligt op tafel. = The receipt is on the table. / The receipt is lying on the table.

The English translation may be the same, but the Dutch nuance is slightly different.

This is the normal word order for a simple Dutch main clause:

• subject
  • finite verb
    • rest of the sentence

So here:

• De bon = subject
• ligt = finite verb
• op de tafel = prepositional phrase

Dutch main clauses usually put the finite verb in the second position. In this sentence, the subject comes first, so the verb comes right after it.

Yes. That is also correct Dutch.

When you move op de tafel to the beginning, the finite verb still stays in the second position:

• Op de tafel ligt de bon.

This version puts more emphasis on the location, as if you are pointing out where it is.

So both are correct:

• De bon ligt op de tafel.
• Op de tafel ligt de bon.

In modern Dutch, that usually does not matter very much for beginners. What matters most is that tafel is a de-word.

Historically, de-words can be masculine or feminine, but in everyday standard Dutch, learners usually just need to know:

• de tafel
• de bon

So the practical answer is: learn the article de with the noun.

A rough pronunciation is something like likht, with the Dutch g/ch sound at the end.

A few details:

• li- sounds a bit like li in lip, but not exactly
• -gt is pronounced with a harsh throat sound before the t
• in normal speech, it sounds roughly like likht

If you know IPA, it is approximately /lɪxt/.

For many English speakers, the hardest part is the Dutch g/ch sound.

People would understand you, but it is less natural than ligt.

Dutch prefers liggen for many objects that are resting somewhere. So:

• more natural: De bon ligt op de tafel.
• understandable but less idiomatic: De bon is op de tafel.

Using is is not always wrong, but if you want natural Dutch, ligt is the better choice here.

Then both the noun and the verb change:

• de bon → de bonnen
• ligt → liggen

So:

• De bonnen liggen op de tafel. = The receipts are on the table.

This is a useful pattern:

• singular: De bon ligt op de tafel.
• plural: De bonnen liggen op de tafel.

Usually yes, but in normal speech Dutch de is often pronounced very weakly, something like duh or də.

So in:

• De bon ligt op de tafel

both instances of de are the same word, and they are usually pronounced lightly and quickly.

In careful speech, they may sound clearer, but in everyday speech they are often unstressed.