De sneeuw smelt in de zon.

in

Breakdown of De sneeuw smelt in de zon.

• de zon: the sun
• de sneeuw: the snow
• smelten: to melt

Questions & Answers about De sneeuw smelt in de zon.

Why does sneeuw take the article de instead of het?

Dutch nouns fall into two “genders” for articles: common (takes de) and neuter (takes het). Most mass‐nouns—especially natural substances like snow, water, sugar—are common‐gender. That’s why you say de sneeuw rather than het sneeuw. You simply learn each noun with its article.

Why is the verb written smelt and not something like smeelt or smeelt?

The infinitive is smelten. To conjugate the present tense you drop -en to get the stem smelt. Then:

• ik smelt
• jij smelt (in questions/inversions: smelt jij?)
• hij/zij/het smelt

Since the stem already ends in -t, you don’t add another -t for the 3rd person singular. For the plural you use smelten (wij smelten, jullie smelten, zij smelten).

Why do we say in de zon instead of op de zon?

Prepositions often don’t match English word-for-word. In Dutch you use in de zon to mean “in the sun’s rays” or “in sunlight.” Saying op de zon would imply physically standing on the surface of the sun! Think of English “lying in the sun”—Dutch uses in as well.

Why is the finite verb smelt in second position (after De sneeuw)?