Breakdown of Wij betalen de toeslag met een creditcard.
wij
we
met
with
een
a, an
betalen
to pay
de toeslag
the surcharge
de creditcard
the credit card
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Questions & Answers about Wij betalen de toeslag met een creditcard.
In the sentence Wij betalen de toeslag met een creditcard., what function does met serve before een creditcard?
met is the standard Dutch preposition for expressing the instrument or means of an action. Here it tells us how you pay the surcharge—“with a credit card.”
Why is toeslag preceded by de? Could it be het toeslag or een toeslag instead?
- toeslag is a common‐gender noun in Dutch, so it takes de, not het.
- de toeslag refers to a specific surcharge (definite). If you said een toeslag, you’d be talking about any surcharge, non‐specific.
Why is the verb written betalen for wij and not betaalt?
Dutch verb conjugation in the present tense:
- ik betaal
- jij/u/hij/zij/het betaalt
- wij/jullie/zij betalen
Since the subject here is wij, you keep the infinitive‐stem plus -en: betalen.
Why does met een creditcard come after de toeslag rather than before it?
In a Dutch main clause the neutral order is:
Subject – Verb – Object – (Adverbial of manner/place/time).
Here met een creditcard is an adverbial of manner (instrument), so it follows the direct object (de toeslag).
Can I put met een creditcard at the start of the sentence? What changes?
Yes. When you front an adverbial in Dutch, you must invert the subject and verb:
“Met een creditcard betalen wij de toeslag.”
Notice betalen (the verb) now comes before wij (the subject).
Why is creditcard written as one word in Dutch?
Dutch forms compounds by fusing words together. English “credit card” becomes the compound noun creditcard in Dutch (no space).
How do you pronounce the g in toeslag and creditcard?
In standard Dutch the letter g is a voiced or voiceless velar fricative [ɣ] or (a guttural “ch” sound):
- toeslag = [ˈtuːsxlaɣ] or [ˈtuːslax]
- creditcard = [ˈkrɛdɪtxkaːrt] (the second t plus k you hear as a slight cluster).
Must I always say wij here, or can I use we or drop it entirely?
- we is the informal short form of wij; both are grammatically correct (“We betalen…” vs. “Wij betalen…”), though we is more common in speech.
- You cannot drop the subject in a neutral declarative sentence—Dutch isn’t pro-drop like Spanish. You need we or wij unless you rephrase (“De toeslag betalen we met een creditcard.”).