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Questions & Answers about Wij doen samen de was.
Why is it de was (with the article) and not just was?
In Dutch, the activity “doing laundry” is idiomatically expressed as de was doen. The definite article de is part of the fixed expression; saying just was doen sounds wrong. You may also hear the countable expression een was (draaien) for “a load of laundry.”
Why use doen here? Could I use maken or wassen instead?
- Dutch uses the light verb doen with certain chores: de was doen, de afwas doen, boodschappen doen.
- Maken means “to make,” so de was maken is incorrect.
- Wassen is the verb “to wash.” You can say We wassen samen de kleren (“We wash the clothes together”), which is fine, but it’s a bit more literal than the standard idiom We doen samen de was.
- A very common alternative is We draaien samen een was(je) (“We run a load of laundry”).
How is doen conjugated?