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Questions & Answers about De baas spreekt met de klant.
Why is de used before baas instead of het?
In Dutch every noun is either a de-word (common gender) or a het-word (neuter). There isn’t a fixed rule for every noun, so you often have to memorize them. baas is a common-gender noun, so it takes de.
Why is de used before klant as well?
Same reason: klant is also a common-gender noun, so it uses de. Many job-titles, agent-nouns and most plural nouns use de.
Why is the verb spreekt placed between the subject and the rest of the sentence?
Dutch follows the V2 (verb-second) rule in main clauses. That means the finite verb comes in position two. Here:
- De baas (position one)
- spreekt (position two)
- met de klant (rest of the sentence)
What exactly does met mean in spreekt met de klant? Could I use aan instead?
- spreken met = “to speak with” (both sides communicate)
- spreken tegen or spreken aan = “to speak to” (address someone, often more one-sided)
You want mutual conversation, so met is the correct preposition here.
Can I use praten met instead of spreken met?
Yes! praten met is more informal—think “chat with.” De baas praat met de klant is perfectly natural in everyday speech, whereas spreekt sounds a bit more formal or business-like.
Why don’t we use a continuous tense like in English (“is speaking”)?
Dutch normally doesn’t have a special continuous form. The simple present (spreekt) covers both “speaks” and “is speaking.” If you really want to stress continuity, you could say bezig zijn met spreken or aan het spreken zijn, but that’s less common.
How would I turn this into a yes/no question?
Invert the verb and the subject:
“Spreekt de baas met de klant?”
Now the finite verb spreekt is in first position, signaling a question.