Learn Hardcore Dutch: Anna zingt het lied.

The sentence follows a standard Dutch SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) structure. Anna is the subject, zingt is the verb, and het lied is the object, which translates to “the song” in English.

Why is the verb conjugated as zingt in this sentence?

In Dutch, verbs in the present tense for third person singular subjects add a -t to the stem. Since Anna is third person singular, zingen becomes zingt.

What does het lied mean and why is the definite article het used instead of de?

Het lied means “the song.” The article het is used because lied is a neuter noun in Dutch. Dutch has two definite articles—het for neuter nouns and de for common-gender nouns.

How can the declarative sentence Anna zingt het lied be turned into a question?

To convert it into a question, you typically invert the subject and the verb. This yields Zingt Anna het lied? Alternatively, you might rely on intonation in spoken Dutch, but inversion is the standard written method.

In what ways is this sentence similar to and different from an equivalent English sentence?