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De kinderen rollen de bal door het park.

De kinderen rollen de bal door het park.
The children roll the ball through the park.
FromLesson 32inHardcore Dutch

Breakdown of De kinderen rollen de bal door het park.

het park
the park
de bal
the ball
door
through
het kind
the child
rollen
to roll

Questions & Answers about De kinderen rollen de bal door het park.

Why is the verb rollen unchanged when the subject de kinderen is plural?

In Dutch present tense, plural subjects always take the infinitive form of the verb (the -en ending). Only third-person singular adds -t (hij/zij/het rolt). So you say:
• wij rollen
• jullie rollen
• zij rollen

Why is it de kinderen but het park?

Dutch nouns are either common gender (use de) or neuter (use het).
• kind(er) is a common-gender noun → de kinderen
• park is neuter → het park
Unfortunately you must often memorize which nouns take which article.

Why is the plural of kind kinderen and not kinds?
Most Dutch nouns form the plural with just -en (kind → kinden is actually old-fashioned). Some, like kind, use an irregular plural: you add -er plus -en → kind + er + en = kinderen.
Why does de bal come right after rollen, and why is door het park at the end?

Dutch follows a Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial (S–V–O–A) order in main clauses:

  1. De kinderen (subject)
  2. rollen (verb in second position)
  3. de bal (direct object)
  4. door het park (prepositional phrase/adverbial)
What does the preposition door express here?
Here door means “through,” indicating movement from one side to the other inside something (the park). It’s equivalent to English through.
Can I use doorheen instead of door?

Yes. doorheen also means “through” and can feel a bit more colloquial or emphatic, but in everyday speech door is shorter and more common:
• door het park
• doorheen het park

Why doesn’t Dutch show a continuous tense like English “are rolling”?

Dutch doesn’t have a dedicated continuous aspect. The simple present (rollen) covers both habitual and ongoing actions. If you really want to stress “right now they’re rolling,” you can use aan het + infinitive:
De kinderen zijn de bal door het park aan het rollen.

Is there a separable verb doorrollen, and would that work here?
There is a separable verb doorrollen, but it means “to keep rolling” or “to roll on” (e.g. de bal rolt door = the ball keeps rolling). It does not mean “to roll something through” – for that you need the verb rollen plus the preposition door.
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