De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week.

The professor will assess our theses next week.

Breakdown of De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week.

• onze: our
• volgend: next
• de week: the week
• de professor: the professor
• de scriptie: the thesis
• beoordelen: to assess

Questions & Answers about De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week.

Why is beoordeelt (present tense) used even though the action happens volgende week (next week)? Wouldn’t a future tense be more correct?

Dutch very often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially for planned or scheduled events.

So De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week is like English The professor is grading / grades our theses next week.

You can also use a future form:

• De professor zal onze scripties volgende week beoordelen.
• De professor gaat onze scripties volgende week beoordelen.

These are both correct. The simple present (beoordeelt) often sounds a bit more neutral and natural in everyday Dutch when the future time is clear from context (volgende week).

Why does the verb come second: De professor beoordeelt…? Could I say De professor onze scripties beoordeelt volgende week?

Dutch main clauses follow the verb‑second (V2) rule:

1. Position 1: one element (often the subject)
2. Position 2: the conjugated verb
3. The rest of the sentence

In your sentence:

• De professor = position 1 (subject)
• beoordeelt = position 2 (conjugated verb)
• onze scripties volgende week = the rest

So De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week is correct.

De professor onze scripties beoordeelt volgende week is wrong because the conjugated verb is no longer in second position.

How is beoordelen conjugated, and why does beoordeelt end in -t?

Beoordelen is a regular verb. Present tense:

• ik beoordeel
• jij / je beoordeelt
• u beoordeelt
• hij / zij / het beoordeelt
• wij / we beoordelen
• jullie beoordelen
• zij / ze beoordelen

For jij/u/hij/zij/het, you add -t to the stem:

• stem: beoordeel- (from infinitive beoordelen)
• • t → beoordeelt

So in De professor beoordeelt…, professor = hij, so you must use the -t form.

What is the difference between beoordeelt and beoordeeld?

They are different forms of the same verb:

• beoordeelt

  • present tense, 2nd or 3rd person singular
  • used as the main (conjugated) verb in a normal sentence
  • De professor beoordeelt onze scripties.

• beoordeeld

  • past participle (like English graded / evaluated)
  • used in perfect tenses or as an adjective
  • De professor heeft onze scripties beoordeeld.
  • De beoordeelde scripties liggen op het bureau.

In your sentence you need the finite (conjugated) verb, so you must use beoordeelt, not beoordeeld.

Why is it onze scripties and not ons scripties?

The choice between ons and onze depends on:

1. Gender/number of the noun
2. Whether it is singular or plural

Rules:

• ons: singular het‑words
  
  • ons huis, ons boek
• onze: all de‑words (singular) and all plurals
  
  • singular de‑words: onze tafel, onze docent
  • all plurals: onze huizen, onze boeken, onze scripties

Scripties is plural, so you must use onze, even if the singular were a het‑word (it isn’t, but even then the plural would still take onze).

What kind of noun is scriptie, and how do you form its plural scripties?

Scriptie is:

• Gender: de scriptie (common gender)
• Meaning: an academic thesis / dissertation (often bachelor’s or master’s thesis)
• Plural: scripties

Plural formation:

• The singular ends in -ie, stressed on scrip‑TIE.
• To form the plural, you usually just add -s: scriptie → scripties.

Compare:

• de baby → de baby’s
• de theorie → de theorieën (here you need -ën with a trema because otherwise you’d read theo‑rien)

Scripties is the normal and correct plural of scriptie.

Could the sentence be singular, like De professor beoordeelt onze scriptie volgende week?

Yes, that is also correct, but it means something slightly different:

• onze scriptie (singular): one thesis belonging to us as a group (e.g. a group project)
• onze scripties (plural): several different theses, one from each of us

So you choose scriptie or scripties depending on meaning, exactly as in English.

Can volgende week appear in a different place in the sentence?

Yes, time expressions like volgende week are quite flexible. All of these are correct, with slightly different emphasis:

1. De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week.
   – Neutral; normal S‑V‑Object‑Time order.

2. De professor beoordeelt volgende week onze scripties.
   – Also correct; a bit more focus on onze scripties at the end.

3. Volgende week beoordeelt de professor onze scripties.
   – Stronger emphasis on volgende week (when it happens).

In all these main‑clause versions, the conjugated verb (beoordeelt) still must be second, so if Volgende week comes first, you get subject–verb inversion:
Volgende week beoordeelt de professor…, not Volgende week de professor beoordeelt…

How would the word order change in a sentence like “I know that the professor will grade our theses next week”?

In subordinate clauses (introduced by words like dat, omdat, als), Dutch sends the conjugated verb to the end of the clause.

Example:

• Main clause:
  De professor beoordeelt onze scripties volgende week.

• With dat:
  Ik weet dat de professor onze scripties volgende week beoordeelt.

Notice in the dat‑clause:

• subject: de professor
• objects/adverbials: onze scripties volgende week
• conjugated verb: beoordeelt at the end

So the rule is roughly: in subordinate clauses, everything comes before the finite verb.

Why is it de professor and not het professor? And is professor the usual word in Dutch?

Article choice:

• Nouns referring to people are almost always de‑words.
  So it’s de professor, de docent, de student, never het professor.

Usage:

• professor: usually a full university professor (a title/position)
• hoogleraar: more technical/official term for a full professor
• docent: teacher/lecturer (can be at university, college, or secondary school)

In everyday speech at university, students commonly say de professor for the person giving the lectures if that person really is a professor. For a general teacher, de docent is more common.

How is the whole sentence pronounced, and are there any tricky sounds?

One fairly standard Dutch pronunciation (Netherlands) is:

• De /də/
• professor /proːˈfɛ.sɔr/
• beoordeelt /bəˈoːr.delt/
• onze /ˈɔn.zə/
• scripties /ˈskrɪp.tis/
• volgende /ˈvɔl.ɣən.də/
• week /ʋeːk/

Tips for English speakers:

• r is often tapped or rolled, especially before vowels (e.g. start of professor, beoordeelt).
• g /ɣ/ in volgende is a throaty sound (like a voiced version of the German Bach ch).
• Final d and t are both pronounced /t/, so beoordeelt ends in a clear t sound.
• week rhymes roughly with English wake, but with a Dutch w /ʋ/ (between English v and w).