Breakdown of Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
Questions & Answers about Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
The infinitive is praten (“to talk”). In the present tense, praten is conjugated like this:
- ik praat – I talk
- jij/u praat – you talk
- hij/zij/het praat – he/she/it talks
- wij praten – we talk
- jullie praten – you (plural) talk
- zij praten – they talk
Tom is a he, so it follows the hij/zij/het pattern: Tom praat.
There is never praaten or praats in standard Dutch.
Yes. Dutch doesn’t use a separate -ing form as often as English.
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
→ can mean “Tom talks loudly during the movie” (a general habit)
→ or “Tom is talking loudly during the movie” (right now)
Context usually makes it clear whether it’s a general habit or something happening at the moment. If you really want to stress the ongoing action, you could say:
- Tom is tijdens de film aan het praten. (more like “is in the middle of talking”)
You can say Tom spreekt luid tijdens de film, but there’s a nuance:
- praten is the normal, everyday verb for chatting, talking.
- spreken is often a bit more formal, or associated with giving a speech, speaking a language, official situations, etc.
In this casual cinema context, Tom praat luid tijdens de film sounds more natural and conversational.
Tom spreekt luid tijdens de film is grammatically correct but feels more formal or slightly odd in tone.
All three relate to sound, but they’re not identical:
- luid – “loud(ly)”. Quite neutral, a bit on the formal/written side.
- hard – commonly used in speech to mean “loud(ly)”:
- Tom praat hard tijdens de film. (very natural in everyday Dutch)
- hardop – “out loud”, “aloud”, as opposed to silently/in your head:
- Tom leest hardop. = Tom reads out loud.
In a cinema context, if you mean that his volume is high, luid and hard both work:
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
- Tom praat hard tijdens de film. (this sounds more colloquial)
Hardop would highlight that he’s not whispering or thinking silently, but saying things audibly:
- Tom praat hardop tijdens de film. = He speaks out loud during the movie.
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film. – Perfect and natural.
- Tom praat tijdens de film luid. – Grammatically possible, but sounds a bit less natural; Dutch usually likes the manner adverb (luid) close to the verb.
- Tom luid praat tijdens de film. – Sounds wrong/very unnatural. In Dutch, you normally don’t put luid directly in front of the verb like an English adverb.
Safe patterns to remember:
- [Subject] [verb] [manner] [time]
→ Tom praat luid tijdens de film. - or [Time] [verb-second] [subject] [rest]
→ Tijdens de film praat Tom luid.
Because tijdens expresses time (“during”), while in expresses location (“in”).
- tijdens de film = while the movie is playing
- in de film = inside the movie / in the film (as part of the film)
So:
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
= Tom talks loudly while the movie is playing (in the cinema). - Tom speelt in de film.
= Tom acts in the film (he is an actor in it).
Every Dutch noun has a grammatical gender. There are:
- de-words (common gender)
- het-words (neuter gender)
film is a de-word, so:
- de film – the movie
- een film – a movie
You simply have to memorize that film uses de, not het. There’s no rule you can apply here; it’s lexical.
That word order is perfectly correct and quite natural:
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
- Tijdens de film praat Tom luid.
Dutch has the “verb-second” (V2) rule in main clauses: the finite verb (here: praat) must appear in second position. When you move Tijdens de film to the front, it occupies the first position, and praat remains second, so the sentence is still correct.
The choice is mostly about emphasis:
- Fronting Tijdens de film highlights the time:
Tijdens de film praat Tom luid (not before or after it). - Keeping Tom first keeps the focus more on him:
Tom praat luid tijdens de film.
Rough guide (not exact IPA, but helpful for English speakers):
praat
- pr – like English “pr” in proud.
- aa – a long a sound, somewhat like the “a” in father, but longer.
- t – like English “t”.
- Roughly: praaht (with a long “a”).
luid
- The ui is a unique Dutch vowel. It’s somewhere between English “ow” (as in cow) and “uh” (as in cut), produced with rounded lips.
Many learners need practice with ui. - d at the end is pronounced more like a t in many accents (final devoicing), so luid sounds like luit.
- Roughly: l-owt, but with the Dutch ui sound.
- The ui is a unique Dutch vowel. It’s somewhere between English “ow” (as in cow) and “uh” (as in cut), produced with rounded lips.
Listening to native audio and repeating is the best way to master aa and ui.
Tom itself is the subject, so you don’t need hij:
- Tom praat luid tijdens de film. – correct
- Hij praat luid tijdens de film. – also correct (but now “he” is the subject)
- Tom hij praat luid tijdens de film. – wrong in standard Dutch (you don’t double the subject like that).
You choose:
- Tom when you want to specify who it is.
- Hij when the person is already known from the context (you’re continuing to talk about him).
No, tijdens is a preposition that can be followed by any suitable noun phrase:
- tijdens de film – during the movie (specific one)
- tijdens een film – during a movie (any movie)
- tijdens films – during movies (plural, more general)
- tijdens de les – during the lesson
- tijdens de pauze – during the break
So de in tijdens de film is just the normal definite article for film, not something required by tijdens itself.