Hij eet het stuk taart.

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Breakdown of Hij eet het stuk taart.

• eten: to eat
• de taart: the cake
• het stuk: the piece

Questions & Answers about Hij eet het stuk taart.

What is hij in this sentence?

hij is the 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun in Dutch, equivalent to he in English. It tells you who performs the action.

Why is the verb eet spelled with double e and why does it end in -t?

The infinitive is eten (to eat). Its stem is et-, but in Dutch a long vowel is written as ee, so the stem appears as eet-. For the 3rd person singular present tense, you add -t, giving eet (“he eats”).

Why does the sentence keep the order Subject–Verb–Object rather than inverting the verb?

In Dutch main (declarative) clauses, if the subject comes first, you follow it immediately with the finite verb (Subject–Verb–Object), just like in English. Verb inversion (Verb–Subject–Object) happens only after certain words (e.g. adverbs) or in questions.

Why is there no preposition like “of” between stuk and taart (i.e. “piece of cake”)?

Dutch uses measure words (stuk, glas, kilo, etc.) directly before the noun without a preposition. So you say stuk taart, not stuk van taart. The measure word and noun form one unit.

Why is het used before instead of ?