Breakdown of Tom weegt het brood voor de maaltijd.
Tom
Tom
het brood
the bread
voor
for
de maaltijd
the meal
wegen
to weigh
Questions & Answers about Tom weegt het brood voor de maaltijd.
What is the infinitive of weegt, and what does it mean?
The infinitive is wegen, which means “to weigh.”
Why is it weegt instead of weeg?
In Dutch the third-person singular present tense of weak verbs ending in -en takes an -t. So from wegen you get hij/zij weegt.
Can Dutch express an ongoing action like English “is weighing”?
Dutch normally uses the simple present (e.g. Tom weegt). You can add emphasis on the action by saying Tom is bezig het brood te wegen, but it’s not obligatory.
Why het brood instead of just brood?
With het brood you refer to a specific or already known loaf of bread. If you speak about bread in general you could omit the article and say Tom weegt brood voor de maaltijd.
How do I know that brood takes het and not de?
Dutch nouns are either common gender (take de) or neuter (take het). There are very few hard rules—most learners simply memorize or check a dictionary. Brood happens to be neuter, so it’s het brood.
What does voor de maaltijd mean here—“before the meal” or “for the meal”?
The preposition voor can express time (“before”) or purpose (“for”). Context tells you which one. In many cooking contexts voor de maaltijd implies “for the meal.” If you really mean the time just preceding it, you might stress it in speech or writing.
Can I move voor de maaltijd to the front of the sentence?
Yes. Dutch is a V2-word-order language. You can say:
Voor de maaltijd weegt Tom het brood.
Is there a way to mark “just before the meal” to avoid confusion with purpose?
You can add emphasis or stress the time aspect by writing vóór de maaltijd (with an accent) or by adding net: Net vóór de maaltijd weegt Tom het brood.
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