Tom opent zijn nieuwe bankrekening online.

Tom opens his new bank account online.

Breakdown of Tom opent zijn nieuwe bankrekening online.

• Tom: Tom
• nieuw: new
• zijn: his
• openen: to open
• online: online
• de bankrekening: the bank account

Questions & Answers about Tom opent zijn nieuwe bankrekening online.

Why is the verb opent spelled with a -t at the end?

Dutch regular verbs ending in -en (like openen) follow a simple rule in the present tense:

• Remove -en to get the stem (open-)
• For the third person singular (hij/zij/het), add -t → hij opent
  Since Tom is a third-person singular subject, we say Tom opent.

Why is there no article like een or de before nieuwe bankrekening?

The possessive pronoun zijn (“his”) takes the place of an article. In Dutch, once you use a possessive (mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, etc.), you don’t add de, het or een before the noun.
Example:
• zijn bankrekening = “his bank account”
• Not: zijn de bankrekening or zijn een bankrekening

Why does nieuwe have an -e ending instead of just nieuw?

Adjectives preceding a noun in Dutch usually get an -e ending when:

1. The noun is a de-word (common gender), or
2. The noun is preceded by a definite article (de), demonstrative (deze), or possessive (zijn).
   Since bankrekening is a de-word and it’s introduced by zijn, the adjective nieuw takes -e → nieuwe bankrekening.

What does bankrekening mean and why is it written as one word?

bankrekening is a compound noun: bank (“bank”) + rekening (“account,” “bill”).
In Dutch, it’s standard to combine related nouns into one word rather than writing them separately.
English “bank account” → Dutch bankrekening.

What part of speech is online here, and why is it placed at the end of the sentence?

online functions as an adverb (specifying the manner/place of opening). In main clauses, Dutch typically follows a V2 (verb-second) order, after which adverbials like manner and place go in the sentence-final slot. Thus:
Subject (Tom) – Verb (opent) – Object (zijn nieuwe bankrekening) – Adverbial (online).

Can online appear in a different position for emphasis?

Yes. While the neutral word order puts online at the end, you can move it for focus:
• Fronted: Online opent Tom zijn nieuwe bankrekening. (Emphasizes online.)
• Mid-sentence: Tom opent online zijn nieuwe bankrekening.
Both are grammatically correct, but the end position is most common.

Why do we say Tom opent instead of Hij opent Tom or Tom hij opent?

Dutch main clauses follow a strict verb-second (V2) rule:

1. One element (often the subject) comes first.
2. The finite verb is the second element.
3. The rest follows.
   So you cannot insert the subject after another subject pronoun.
   Correct: Tom opent zijn nieuwe bankrekening online.
   Incorrect: Hij Tom opent… or Tom hij opent…