Learn Hardcore Dutch: Zij plakt een slinger op de muur.

In Dutch, zij is the full subject pronoun for “she.” You often see zij
• in written or formal contexts,
• when you want to add emphasis (“She, and not someone else, is doing it”).

In everyday speech, native speakers frequently shorten zij to ze: “Ze plakt een slinger op de muur.”

How do you form the present tense of plakken for zij?

Plakken is a regular verb. In the present tense, you use the stem plak- plus -t for the third person singular:
• ik plak
• jij plakt
• hij/zij/het plakt

So zij plakt is simply “she sticks/glues.”

Why is it een slinger and not de slinger?

• een = “a/an,” the indefinite article.
• You use een because we’ve introduced slinger for the first (and only) time; we don’t assume the listener knows which specific one.
If you had already mentioned or both speaker and listener know the specific streamer, you’d say de slinger (“the streamer”).

What does slinger mean, and what gender is it?

• slinger = “streamer” or “garland” (a decorative hanging ribbon).
• It’s a de-word (common gender): de slinger.

Why is the preposition op used here, and how is it different from aan?

In Dutch, op generally means “on (top of a surface).”
• You say een schilderij ophangen aan de muur for “hang a painting on the wall,” because aan suggests attachment to a vertical surface by hook or nail.
• With plakken (sticking with glue/tape), you use op: plakken op de muur = “stick on the wall.”

Why is the word order Zij plakt een slinger op de muur and not Zij plakt op de muur een slinger?

Dutch typically places the direct object (een slinger) immediately after the finite verb (plakt). The prepositional phrase (op de muur) comes afterward as a location complement. Swapping them sounds odd to a native speaker.

What grammatical role does op de muur play?

op de muur is an adverbial or prepositional complement indicating location. It answers the question “Where is she sticking the streamer?” → “On the wall.”