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Questions & Answers about Dat eten is heel lekker!
Why is it Dat eten and not Die eten?
In Dutch, eten is a neuter noun (it uses het), so we use dat instead of die. Dat is the demonstrative pronoun that goes with nouns of the het gender. If it were a de word, then we would use die.
What does heel mean here, and can we replace it with another word?
Heel in this sentence means very. You can say Dat eten is heel lekker or Dat eten is erg lekker and they both sound natural in Dutch to mean That food is very tasty. You can also add emphasis by saying heel erg lekker for really very tasty.
Why do Dutch speakers commonly use lekker for food?
Lekker is a versatile word in Dutch that typically means tasty when referring to food. It can also mean nice, comfortable, or pleasant, depending on the context. When used to describe food, it most often translates as delicious or tasty.
Could we say Dat eten smaakt heel lekker instead?
Absolutely. Dat eten smaakt heel lekker means roughly the same thing: That food tastes very good/tasty. The verb smaken means to taste in Dutch, so using Dat eten smaakt heel lekker is just a slightly different but equally correct way to talk about how the food tastes.
How do I pronounce the g in lekker?
The g in lekker is a soft k sound (like k in English), because lekker is spelled with two k*s. If you see a *g in other words like begrijpen, the g is usually pronounced with a guttural sound in standard Dutch (similar to the ch in Bach). But in lekker, it’s just the k sound.