Breakdown of Morgen ga ik met Tom naar het eiland.
ik
I
Tom
Tom
gaan
to go
morgen
tomorrow
naar
to
met
with
het eiland
the island
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Questions & Answers about Morgen ga ik met Tom naar het eiland.
Why is morgen at the beginning of the sentence?
In Dutch you can front a time adverb (like morgen) to emphasize when something happens. When you do that, you still follow the V2 rule (verb-second), so the finite verb ga comes right after morgen, even though the subject ik follows the verb.
Could I also say Ik ga morgen met Tom naar het eiland?
Yes, absolutely. That word order—subject (ik), verb (ga), time (morgen), manner (met Tom), place (naar het eiland)—is perfectly normal in Dutch. Fronting morgen simply adds emphasis to “tomorrow.”
Why does met Tom come before naar het eiland?
Dutch generally follows the Time – Manner – Place order for adverbials. Here:
- Time: morgen
- Manner (accompaniment): met Tom
- Place: naar het eiland
Why do we use met in met Tom instead of another preposition?
Met means “with” when indicating accompaniment. You could optionally add samen (“together”), as in samen met Tom, but just met Tom is the standard way to say you’re going somewhere together with someone.
Why is naar used in naar het eiland?
When you talk about motion towards a destination, Dutch uses the preposition naar (“to/towards”). So when you “go to the island,” you say naar het eiland.
Why is it het eiland and not de eiland?
Dutch nouns are either de-words (common gender) or het-words (neuter). Eiland is a neuter noun, so it takes the definite article het in the singular. If it were indefinite you’d say een eiland (“an island”) instead.
Could I say Morgen ga ik met Tom naar een eiland?
Yes. That changes the meaning slightly: een eiland is indefinite (“some island”), whereas het eiland is definite (“the island we both know about”). Use een when you’re not referring to a specific island.
How do you pronounce eiland?
Eiland is pronounced roughly like AY-lahnt. The ei in Dutch sounds like the English long “i” in “buy,” and the final d often sounds closer to a soft t in casual speech.