Breakdown of De grootouder leest een boek in de tuin.
Questions & Answers about De grootouder leest een boek in de tuin.
In Dutch every noun takes either de or het as its definite article, and unfortunately there’s no simple “always-do-this” rule. However:
- Most nouns referring to people (like grootouder) are de-words.
- Compounds ending in -ouder (“parent”) also take de.
You’ll need to learn each noun’s article by practice and exposure. One tip: all plural nouns use de anyway, so once you know the plural, you know the article too.
Yes—grootouder simply means “grandparent” without specifying gender. If you want to be explicit:
- grootvader or informal opa = grandfather
- grootmoeder or informal oma = grandmother
Dutch present-tense conjugation for lezen (to read) goes like this (singular forms):
- ik lees
- jij leest
- hij/zij/het leest
In our sentence the subject is de grootouder (he or she), so you use the third-person singular ending -t, giving leest.
- een = “a/an,” used when you introduce something unspecified or for the first time.
- het = “the,” used when you talk about something specific or already known to listener and speaker.
Here we mean “a book,” not one in particular, so een boek is correct.
- grootouder → grootouders (add -s)
- boek → boeken (add -en)
- tuin → tuinen (add -en)
Note: Dutch plurals often take -en, but some words take -s (especially those ending in a vowel or unstressed syllable).
Dutch main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule: one element (subject, object or adverbial) comes first, the conjugated verb comes second, then the rest. In De grootouder leest een boek in de tuin, the subject comes first. You can also front in de tuin as your first element:
“In de tuin leest de grootouder een boek.”
Here in de tuin (the place) is first, leest remains in second position, and you swap the subject and object accordingly.