De nieuwe stoel staat naast de tafel.

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Breakdown of De nieuwe stoel staat naast de tafel.

• de tafel: the table
• de stoel: the chair
• staan: to stand
• naast: next to

Questions & Answers about De nieuwe stoel staat naast de tafel.

Why is staat used instead of is in this sentence?

In Dutch, verbs like staan (stand), liggen (lie), zitten (sit), and hangen (hang) often describe the position or orientation of an object. Here, staat indicates that the chair is in an upright position next to the table, rather than simply existing there. So instead of saying is (is), you specify its position by saying staat.

Why do we say de stoel instead of het stoel?

Dutch nouns have grammatical genders—masculine/feminine (commonly using de) and neuter (using het). The word stoel is masculine/feminine, so it takes de. There is no straightforward rule to predict whether a noun is de or het, so learners often memorize which article goes with each noun.

Why do we use staat and not zit for the chair?

In Dutch, zitten (sit) usually implies that a person or an animal is sitting or that an object is inside something else. Since the chair here is free-standing rather than contained or occupied, staat is more suitable to describe its upright, standalone position.

How is naast different from bij?

Both can translate to near or next to in English, but naast specifically emphasizes directly next to or beside, whereas bij can suggest a more general sense of nearby. So naast tells you the chair is directly at the side of the table.

Why is nieuwe placed before stoel here?

In Dutch, attributive adjectives (like nieuwe) typically appear before the noun (e.g., De nieuwe stoel). If you need to modify the noun further with an adjective, it often comes before the noun, and it usually has an -e ending, except in certain cases where the noun is het-words in singular or indefinite form.