Breakdown of Hij zingt een lied over de aankomst van de lente met een prachtige melodie.
hij
he
met
with
zingen
to sing
over
about
een
a, an
het lied
the song
de aankomst
the arrival
de lente
the spring
prachtig
beautiful
de melodie
the melody
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Questions & Answers about Hij zingt een lied over de aankomst van de lente met een prachtige melodie.
What does the verb zingt mean in the sentence, and how is it correctly conjugated?
Zingt is the third person singular present tense form of the verb zingen (to sing). It agrees with the subject hij (he), meaning that he sings.
Why is the indefinite article een used in een lied, and is its usage similar to the English article a?
Yes, in Dutch een functions like the English a. The phrase een lied translates directly as a song, where een is used with singular, common gender nouns in a way that is quite similar to how a is used in English.
How is the prepositional phrase over de aankomst van de lente structured, and what roles do the prepositions over and van play?
The phrase over de aankomst van de lente describes the subject matter of the song. The preposition over means about, indicating the topic (the arrival) that the song is addressing. Within that phrase, van links aankomst (arrival) to de lente (the spring), effectively meaning of the spring and specifying what kind of arrival is being referred to.
Why does the adjective in met een prachtige melodie take an -e ending?
In Dutch, adjectives are inflected based on the noun they modify. Since melodie is a common gender noun (it generally takes a definite article like de melodie), when paired with the indefinite article een, the adjective prachtig takes an -e ending, resulting in prachtige. This is a common grammatical rule in Dutch for adjectives placed before common gender nouns in the singular form.
How does the overall word order in this Dutch sentence compare to that in English?
The sentence follows a structure very similar to English. It starts with the subject hij (he), followed by the verb zingt (sings), and then the object een lied (a song). The additional prepositional phrases, over de aankomst van de lente (about the arrival of spring) and met een prachtige melodie (with a beautiful melody), are positioned at the end of the sentence, much like adverbial phrases in an English sentence.
Why is the word lente not capitalized, even though it refers to a season?
In Dutch, the names of seasons such as lente (spring) are not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence. This follows standard Dutch orthography, similar to English where common nouns like spring remain lowercase in most contexts.