Breakdown of Ik print de grafiek voor onze vergadering.
ik
I
onze
our
voor
for
de vergadering
the meeting
printen
to print
de grafiek
the graph
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Questions & Answers about Ik print de grafiek voor onze vergadering.
Why is the verb print used instead of a native Dutch word?
In Dutch, the computer-related verb printen is borrowed from English and is very common. You form the present tense by dropping -en and adding -t: ik print. A fully Dutch alternative is afdrukken (e.g. ik druk de grafiek af).
What’s the difference between printen and afdrukken?
Both mean “to print,” but printen is an Anglicism widely used in everyday and technical speech. Afdrukken is the traditional Dutch verb and slightly more formal. In casual office talk you’ll often hear printen.
Why is it de grafiek and not het grafiek?
Dutch nouns take either de (common gender) or het (neuter). Grafiek is a de-word, so it always goes with de. Article gender must be learned per noun or via memorization tricks.
What does voor onze vergadering mean, and why is voor used here?
Here voor means “for,” indicating purpose: I’m printing the chart for our meeting. Voor can also mean “before” in time expressions (e.g. voor 5 uur = “before 5 o’clock”). Context tells you which sense applies.
Why is it onze vergadering and not ons vergadering?
Use onze with all de-words and plurals. You only use ons with singular het-words. Since vergadering takes de, it pairs with onze.
Does Ik print de grafiek voor onze vergadering express a continuous action like “I am printing…”?
Dutch doesn’t have a separate continuous tense. The simple present (ik print) can imply an ongoing action. To stress that it’s happening right now, you could say Ik ben de grafiek aan het printen voor onze vergadering.
Can I move voor onze vergadering to the front of the sentence?
Yes. Dutch follows the verb-second rule: when you start with an adverbial phrase, the finite verb stays in position two. So you can say: Voor onze vergadering print ik de grafiek.
How do you conjugate printen for other subjects (you, we, they)?
Drop -en and add:
• jij/je: jij print (question/inversion: print jij?)
• hij/zij: hij print
• wij/we, jullie, zij/ze: wij printen, jullie printen, zij printen
Is printen a separable verb like afdrukken (druk af)?
No. Printen is non-separable. You always keep it together as print, whereas afdrukken splits into druk … af in the sentence.