Learn Hardcore Dutch: Op de tribune maakt een tiener foto’s en bewaart ze in een digitale map op zijn telefoon. - In the stand a teenager takes photos and stores them in a digital folder on his phone.

In Dutch, if a noun ends in a vowel (here foto ends in “o”), you add ’s to form the plural: foto → foto’s. Without the apostrophe (fotos), the reader might misread the word or mispronounce the final vowel.

Why is the pronoun ze used to refer to the photos instead of hun or hen?

Ze (or zij) is the standard 3rd-person plural object pronoun in Dutch for both people and things.

Hun is a possessive pronoun (“their”) or an indirect-object pronoun (e.g. “ik geef hun een cadeau” – “I give them a gift”).
Hen is also an object pronoun but used only after a preposition (e.g. “ik zie hen” vs. “ik spreek met hen”).
Here the photos are the direct object of bewaart, so we use ze.

Why does Op de tribune appear at the beginning of the sentence?

Dutch main clauses follow the “V2” rule: the finite verb must be in the second position. You can start with an adverbial or topic phrase (here Op de tribune), then place the verb (maakt), and then the subject (een tiener). This structure emphasizes the location first.

Why does the adjective digitale take an -e ending before map?

In Dutch, adjectives preceding a noun get an -e when the noun is: • Singular and preceded by de or het, or
• Preceded by een (indefinite singular).
Since map is a singular “de-word” and preceded by no article, we still treat it like a definite/indefinite singular and add -e: digitale map.

Why is there een before tiener but no article before foto’s?

Singular nouns in Dutch generally need an article (de, het, or een). Plural nouns, when indefinite, typically stand without any article.

een tiener = “a teenager” (singular, indefinite)
foto’s = “photos” (plural, indefinite → no article)

Could we use haar telefoon instead of zijn telefoon?

Yes. zijn means “his,” so this sentence assumes a male teenager. If you know the teenager is female, use haar telefoon (“her phone”). If you want to stay gender-neutral in Dutch, you could repeat the noun (de tiener) or rephrase in the plural: Tieners maken foto’s en bewaren ze op hun telefoons.

Why do we use op for de tribune but in for een digitale map?

Op means “on” and is used for surfaces or platforms—op de tribune = “on the stands.”
In means “in” or “inside” and is used for containers—in een digitale map = “in a digital folder.” The stands are like a surface you sit on; a folder is like a container you store files in.

Why is there only one subject (een tiener) even though there are two verbs connected by en?

When two verbs share the same subject in Dutch, you don’t repeat the subject. You simply connect the verbs with en:
“een tiener maakt foto’s en bewaart ze…”
If the second action had a different subject, you would need to state it.