Breakdown of Wij verspreiden het nieuws onder onze vrienden.
wij
we
de vriend
the friend
onze
our
het nieuws
the news
verspreiden
to spread
onder
among
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Questions & Answers about Wij verspreiden het nieuws onder onze vrienden.
Why is the verb verspreiden used here instead of vertellen?
Although both can mean “to tell” in English, verspreiden emphasizes spreading information broadly among multiple people, whereas vertellen focuses on telling or relating something to someone (often one person or a small group). In this sentence the nuance is about distributing news among friends, so verspreiden is more appropriate.
Is verspreiden a separable verb? Why isn’t the prefix moved to the end?
No. The ver- in verspreiden is an inseparable prefix. This means you always keep verspreiden together in all tenses and sentence positions. By contrast, separable verbs like meebrengen split (e.g. Ik breng het mee).
What does the preposition onder mean in this context?
Here onder means “among” or “within” the group. It does not mean literally “under” (as in physically below). So onder onze vrienden = among our friends.
Could I use bij onze vrienden or aan onze vrienden instead of onder onze vrienden?
- bij onze vrienden would mean “at our friends’ place” (location).
- aan onze vrienden is used with verbs like vertellen (“tell to our friends”), not verspreiden.
With verspreiden, the established collocation is verspreiden onder to express “spread among”.
Why do we say het nieuws and not de nieuws?
The noun nieuws is neuter and uncountable, so it takes the neuter article het. You never use de with nieuws.
Why is onze vrienden used instead of ons vrienden?
Dutch possessive pronouns agree in gender and number:
- ons goes with singular neuter nouns (e.g. ons huis).
- onze goes with all plurals and common-gender nouns (e.g. onze vrienden, onze auto).
Why do we include wij at the beginning? Could we leave it out or use we?
Dutch normally requires an explicit subject pronoun, so you cannot drop wij like you sometimes drop “we” in English. You can, however, use the unstressed form we instead of wij in informal speech:
- Formal/neutral: Wij verspreiden…
- Informal: We verspreiden…
Why is the word order Wij verspreiden het nieuws onder onze vrienden and not Wij verspreiden onder onze vrienden het nieuws?
The neutral order in Dutch is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial, so het nieuws (the direct object) comes right after the verb, and the prepositional phrase onder onze vrienden follows. Placing onder onze vrienden earlier is not ungrammatical but shifts the emphasis onto the group rather than the news.