Lees bladzijde tien voor de oefening.

Lees bladzijde tien voor de oefening.
Read page ten for the exercise.

Breakdown of Lees bladzijde tien voor de oefening.

lezen
to read
voor
for
tien
ten
de oefening
the exercise
de bladzijde
the page
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Dutch grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Dutch now

Questions & Answers about Lees bladzijde tien voor de oefening.

What is the form of Lees in this sentence?
Lees is the singular imperative (command form) of the verb lezen. It tells one person directly to “read.”
Why is there no article before bladzijde tien?
When referring to a specific page number in Dutch, you treat “bladzijde + number” as a label and omit the article. So you say bladzijde tien, not de bladzijde tien.
Why do we say bladzijde tien instead of tien bladzijdes or de tiende bladzijde?
  • tien bladzijdes means “ten pages” (a quantity of pages).
  • de tiende bladzijde is the ordinal form “the tenth page,” which is grammatically correct but less common in instructions.
  • bladzijde tien is the standard way to point learners to page 10 in a book or exercise.
What’s the difference between bladzijde and pagina?

Both words mean “page,” but:

  • bladzijde traditionally refers to one side of a leaf in a book.
  • pagina is a Latin borrowing and is the most common term in modern contexts.
    In everyday speech and writing they’re often used interchangeably.
Why does voor mean “for” here, not “before”?
The preposition voor can mean both “before” (in time or place) and “for” (indicating purpose). When it’s followed by de + noun and expresses purpose, it translates as “for.”
Why is de used before oefening instead of het or een?
  • Oefening is a de-woord (common gender) in Dutch, so it takes de.
  • It’s definite here because the speaker and listener know which exercise is meant.
Why is voor de oefening placed at the end of the sentence rather than immediately after Lees?

Default word order in a Dutch imperative is:

  1. Verb first (Lees)
  2. Direct object (bladzijde tien)
  3. Adverbial or prepositional phrases (voor de oefening)
Can bladzijde be abbreviated, and if so, how?
Yes. In books and instructions it’s often shortened to blz.. You might also see p. (from pagina) in bilingual or informal texts.