Breakdown of Het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw is schattig maar ook brutaal.
Questions & Answers about Het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw is schattig maar ook brutaal.
Dutch normally expresses possession with van + noun/pronoun, not with an ’s ending on the possessor.
- het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw = the pet of my neighbour (female)
- English uses a possessive ’s: my neighbour’s pet.
- In Dutch, a construction like mijn buurvrouws huisdier sounds unnatural or poetic/old‑fashioned at best.
So the standard way is:
- het boek van Jan – Jan’s book
- de auto van mijn broer – my brother’s car
- het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw – my neighbour’s pet
Because mijn is a possessive pronoun (my), and mij is an object pronoun (me).
- mijn buurvrouw = my neighbour (female)
- mij is used as an object, for example:
- Hij ziet mij. – He sees me.
- Hij geeft het aan mij. – He gives it to me.
In front of a noun to show possession (my X), you must use mijn, never mij:
- ✅ mijn buurvrouw, mijn huisdier
- ❌ mij buurvrouw, mij huisdier
Dutch almost always writes compound nouns as one word, where English might use two:
- huis (house) + dier (animal) → huisdier (pet, literally house animal)
- huiswerk (homework), boomhut (tree house), keukentafel (kitchen table)
Writing huis dier would look like two separate nouns (house animal) that just happen to stand next to each other, which is not how Dutch normally works. The correct form is the single compound huisdier.
In Dutch, every noun has a grammatical gender: de‑words (common gender) and het‑words (neuter). You just have to learn which is which.
- het huisdier is a het‑word.
- So we say: het huisdier, een huisdier, mijn huisdier.
There is no obvious rule that tells you huisdier must be a het‑word; it’s simply part of its dictionary form, so you learn it as: het huisdier.
In Dutch, adjectives behave differently depending on their position:
Before a noun (attributive): they usually get an -e
- een schattig huisdier
- het schattige huisdier
- de brutale kat
After a form of “to be” (predicative): they do not take an -e
- Het huisdier is schattig.
- De kat is brutaal.
In your sentence, schattig and brutaal come after is, so they are predicative adjectives, and they stay in their basic form without -e:
- is schattig maar ook brutaal
brutaal is a false friend for English speakers.
- In Dutch, brutaal usually means cheeky, impudent, bold in a slightly rude way.
- A child who talks back is brutaal.
- A pet that steals food from your plate can be brutaal.
English brutal is normally very violent or cruel. That meaning in Dutch would be wreed, bruut, or gewelddadig, not brutaal.
So your sentence describes a pet that is cheeky/bold, not cruel.
maar ook literally combines:
- maar = but
- ook = also, too
Together, maar ook emphasises a contrast and an addition:
- schattig maar ook brutaal = cute but also cheeky
→ It’s cute (positive) while also having this additional (contrasting) characteristic.
You have options:
- schattig maar brutaal – cute but cheeky (simple contrast)
- schattig en brutaal – cute and cheeky (simple addition, no contrast)
- schattig maar ook brutaal – cute, but also cheeky (adds emphasis: surprisingly / in addition, it’s cheeky too)
All are grammatically correct, but the nuance shifts.
Yes, you can, and grammatically it’s fine:
- Het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw is schattig maar ook brutaal.
- Het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw is brutaal maar ook schattig.
The basic meaning is the same (the pet is both cute and cheeky). The difference is mostly in emphasis:
- First version: slightly emphasises that it’s cute, and also cheeky.
- Second version: slightly emphasises that it’s cheeky, and also cute.
In everyday speech, both would be understood the same way; word order just shifts what you seem to highlight first.
All three are related to neighbour:
- buurvrouw – female neighbour
- buurman – male neighbour
- buur – can mean neighbour in a more general or sometimes old‑fashioned way, and appears in compounds like buurt (neighbourhood), buurfeest, buurtbewoner.
In modern everyday speech, if you know the neighbour is a woman, you normally say buurvrouw; if a man, buurman:
- mijn buurvrouw – my (female) neighbour
- mijn buurman – my (male) neighbour
You’d need the plural of huisdier, which is huisdieren, and you’d use a plural verb:
- De huisdieren van mijn buurvrouw zijn schattig maar ook brutaal.
- De huisdieren – the pets
- zijn – are (plural of is)
If you wanted my instead of the:
- Mijn buurvrouws huisdieren is still unusual; better:
- De huisdieren van mijn buurvrouw zijn … (most natural)
- Mijn buurvrouw heeft huisdieren. Ze zijn schattig maar ook brutaal. (two sentences)
There are two different vowel sounds here:
huisdier – the ui in huis is a single Dutch vowel, often described as something between ow in now and oy in boy, but with rounded lips.
- You can try: start from English ee in see, round your lips, and move slightly towards uh. It’s easier to learn by imitation.
buurvrouw – here you have uu in buur and ou in vrouw, not ui:
- uu is a long, front, rounded vowel (like German ü in Türen).
- ou is like the ow in cow but usually a bit shorter.
So:
- huis – [h + Dutch ui]
- buur – [b + long uu]
- vrouw – [vr + ou]
Yes, in some dialects and informal spoken Dutch, people do use constructions like:
- mijn buurvrouw haar huisdier
- Jan zijn fiets – literally Jan his bike
However:
- This is considered dialectal/colloquial, not standard written Dutch.
- In correct, neutral Dutch you should use het huisdier van mijn buurvrouw.
So for learning and for anything written or formal, stick with van + possessor.