De zestiende student komt.

Because student is a de-word in Dutch, so the definite article is de: de student.

Also, de can mark either:

• singular common-gender nouns, or
• all plural nouns

Here it is singular, because student is singular and the verb komt is singular too.

Zestiende is an ordinal number: first, second, third, sixteenth, and so on.

In this sentence, it works like an adjective before the noun:

• de eerste student
• de tweede student
• de zestiende student

So it describes which student you mean.

Dutch ordinal numbers are usually formed from cardinals by adding an ordinal ending.

A useful basic pattern is:

• many numbers up to 19 take -de: vierde, vijfde, vijftiende, zestiende
• many numbers from 20 onward take -ste: twintigste, eenentwintigste

There are also irregular forms, especially common early ones:

• eerste = first
• derde = third
• achtste = eighth

So zestiende is the normal ordinal form of zestien.

Because in Dutch, ordinal numbers usually come before the noun they modify, just like in English.

So:

• de zestiende student matches
• the sixteenth student

This is the normal order: article + ordinal/adjective + noun.

In a normal Dutch main clause, the finite verb usually comes in second position. This is often called the V2 rule.

Here, the whole subject phrase De zestiende student counts as the first element, and komt is the finite verb, so it comes next:

• De zestiende student | komt

If another element comes first, the verb still stays second:

• Vandaag komt de zestiende student.

It can often mean either, depending on context.

Dutch present tense is commonly used where English might use:

• comes
• is coming
• sometimes is arriving

So komt is a normal present-tense form here. Dutch usually does not need a separate progressive form in a simple sentence like this.

A rough English-friendly guide is zes-TEEN-duh.

A few helpful points:

• the stress is on -tien-
• ie sounds like ee
• the final -de is usually a weak duh sound

So the sentence is roughly:

• duh zes-TEEN-duh stu-DENT komt

This is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

Not always.

In everyday Dutch, student often means a college or university student. For a school pupil, Dutch more often uses:

• leerling
• scholier

So depending on context, student can be a little narrower than English student.

By itself, de can be plural, but not in this sentence.

Here, the rest of the sentence shows that it is singular:

• student is singular
• komt is singular

So De zestiende student komt clearly means one person, not several.