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Questions & Answers about De bakker wilde ons gratis brood aanbieden.
What part of speech is wilde, and why do we use wilde instead of wou?
wilde is the simple-past (imperfectum) form of the verb willen (“to want”) for singular subjects. In standard Dutch you say ik wilde, jij wilde, hij wilde, etc., and wij wilden for the plural. In informal speech many people say wou/wouden, but in writing and formal speech you stick with wilde/wilden.
Why is aanbieden written as one word, and when would the prefix aan split off?
aanbieden is a separable verb composed of the prefix aan + the root bieden. In the infinitive you write them together. In a main-clause finite form you split the prefix and move it to the end. For example:
• Present: De bakker biedt ons brood aan.
• Simple past: De bakker bood ons brood aan.
Why does the infinitive aanbieden appear at the end of the sentence?
Dutch main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule: the finite verb (wilde) occupies the second position, and any infinitives or non-finite verbs go to the end. That’s why aanbieden ends up after the objects.
How can I tell if ons is a possessive pronoun or an object pronoun here?
Here ons is directly followed by the noun brood, so it functions as a possessive determiner meaning “our.” If it were an object pronoun “us,” it would stand alone (e.g. Hij gaf ons.) and not be immediately followed by another noun.
Why do we say ons instead of onze, and when do I use each?
Dutch has two forms of “our”:
• ons is used before singular neuter (het-) nouns.
• onze is used before common-gender (de-) nouns and all plurals.
Because brood is a neuter noun (het brood), you say ons brood.
Why isn’t there an article before gratis brood, and why doesn’t gratis take an -e ending?
The possessive ons already serves as the determiner, so you don’t add een, de or het. As for gratis, it’s an indeclinable adjective in Dutch—it never takes an -e. (Even regular adjectives wouldn’t take -e before a singular neuter noun without a definite article.)
In the phrase ons gratis brood, why must ons come before gratis? Can I switch them?
Within a Dutch noun phrase the order is always determiner/possessive (ons) + adjective (gratis) + noun (brood). Swapping them would break the standard word-order rules for noun phrases.
What happens if I place gratis after brood, as in ons brood gratis aanbieden?
Then gratis acts as an adverb modifying aanbieden (“offer for free”) rather than as an adjective describing brood (“our free bread”). Both sentences are correct, but the emphasis shifts.
Could I use a different tense, like present or the simple past of aanbieden, to express the same idea?
Yes. For present tense you say:
De bakker wil ons gratis brood aanbieden.
If you want to say he actually offered it, use the simple past of aanbieden (with the prefix at the end):
De bakker bood ons gratis brood aan.
And in perfect tense:
De bakker heeft ons gratis brood aangeboden.