Breakdown of Tom neemt morgen zijn laptop mee naar school.
Tom
Tom
morgen
tomorrow
naar
to
de school
the school
zijn
his
meenemen
to take along
de laptop
the laptop
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Questions & Answers about Tom neemt morgen zijn laptop mee naar school.
Why is meenemen split into neemt and mee in this sentence?
In Dutch, meenemen (to take along) is a separable verb. In a main clause, the prefix mee detaches and moves to the end. The finite part (neemt) stays in second position (after the subject), and mee appears just before any other verbal or adverbial elements.
Why does morgen (tomorrow) come after neemt and before zijn laptop rather than at the very beginning or end?
Dutch follows the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in the second position. After the verb you can place a time adverbial like morgen. Also, Dutch often orders adverbials as time–manner–place. Here morgen (time) comes before the direct object (zijn laptop). You could also start the sentence with Morgen (making neemt second), but you cannot push morgen all the way to the end without sounding odd.
Why isn’t there an article before laptop?
The possessive pronoun zijn (“his”) replaces the need for an article. Whenever you use mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, etc., you omit de or het. So zijn laptop means “his laptop” with no extra article.
Why is the verb form neemt and not neem?
Tom is third-person singular (he). In the present tense, verbs get an -t ending for hij/zij/het. The base is neem (ik neem), but with he/she/it it becomes neemt.
Why isn’t the future expressed with zal meenemen or another future tense form?
Dutch commonly uses the present tense to talk about scheduled or planned future events, much like English “I leave tomorrow.” If you want to stress the future you can say Tom zal morgen zijn laptop meenemen, but it’s not necessary.
Why naar school and not op school or in school?
Use naar with verbs of motion to indicate direction: naar school = “to school.”
Use op to indicate location once you’re there: hij is op school = “he is at school.”
in school is less common for this meaning.
Can we change the order of morgen, zijn laptop and naar school? For example, is Tom neemt zijn laptop morgen mee naar school correct?
Yes, Dutch allows some flexibility:
- Tom neemt morgen zijn laptop mee naar school. (neutral)
- Tom neemt zijn laptop morgen mee naar school. (time after object)
You can even say Tom neemt morgen zijn laptop naar school mee, though less common. The key is that the finite verb stays second, mee remains attached to the end of the verb cluster, and time–manner–place order is respected.