Tom geeft Anna snoep.

Anna

Breakdown of Tom geeft Anna snoep.

• Tom: Tom
• geven: to give
• het snoep: the candy

Questions & Answers about Tom geeft Anna snoep.

Why is the verb geeft used here instead of the infinitive geven?

Because Tom is a third-person singular subject, you must conjugate geven for “hij/zij/het.” The stem is gev-, and in the present tense you add -t, giving geeft.

Why don’t we need a preposition like aan before Anna?

Dutch allows many ditransitive verbs (like geven) to take an indirect object directly, with word order indicating who gets what. If you do use the preposition aan, you must change the order:

• Tom geeft snoep aan Anna.
  Without aan, the IO (Anna) simply comes before the DO (snoep).

What is the standard word order in Tom geeft Anna snoep?

The pattern here is Subject – Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object (S-V-IO-DO). That’s common with verbs like geven when no preposition is used.

Can I switch Anna and snoep without adding aan?

No. If you swap them—Tom geeft snoep Anna—it will sound ungrammatical or confusing. To put snoep before Anna, you must say:

• Tom geeft snoep aan Anna.