Learn Hardcore Dutch: Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer.

kijken (naar) ≈ to look (at) – you actively direct your eyes.
- Tom kijkt naar zijn cijfer. → Tom looks at his grade.
zien ≈ to see – you passively perceive something, you notice it.
- Tom ziet zijn cijfer. → Tom sees his grade.

In this sentence, the focus is on Tom looking at the result (and reacting to it), not just on the fact that his eyes perceive it. That’s why Dutch needs kijken (naar), not zien.

Why do we say kijkt naar and not just kijkt? Is naar necessary?

Yes. When you say you are looking at something specific, Dutch normally uses kijken naar:

naar = at / towards in this context.
kijken naar iets = to look at something.

So:

Tom kijkt. → Tom is looking (in general, direction not specified).
Tom kijkt naar zijn cijfer. → Tom is looking at his grade.

Without naar, the sentence would feel incomplete here, because kijken alone does not say what he is looking at.

What exactly does cijfer mean here? Is it a number, a digit, or a grade?

Cijfer has a few related meanings:

Digit / numeral (0–9)
- Het cijfer 7 → the digit 7
Number (in some contexts)
School grade / mark – this is the meaning in your sentence.
- Ik heb een goed cijfer gehaald. → I got a good grade.

So in Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer, the natural reading is:

cijfer = the grade/mark he received on a test or assignment.

For number in a more abstract sense, Dutch often prefers getal (number as a quantity) or nummer (a number as a label, like a phone number or house number).

Is teleurgesteld an adjective or an adverb here? It looks like an adjective, but it seems to modify kijkt.

Grammatically, teleurgesteld is a past participle used as an adjective (from teleurstellen = to disappoint).

In this sentence, it describes Tom’s emotional state, not the act of looking itself:

Literally: Tom, disappointed, looks at his grade.

Dutch often uses bare adjectives after verbs of perception and movement:

Hij loopt langzaam. – He walks slowly.
Ze kijkt boos. – She looks angry.
Tom kijkt teleurgesteld. – Tom looks disappointed.

So:

In English, you would probably say disappointedly (adverb) or looks disappointed.
In Dutch, the same form (teleurgesteld) is used; it functions as a kind of subject-related predicate: it tells us in what state Tom is while he is looking.

Can I change the word order, for example: Tom kijkt naar zijn cijfer teleurgesteld or Tom teleurgesteld kijkt naar zijn cijfer?

Only some word orders sound natural here:

Standard word order (best choice):
- Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer. ✅
Focusing on the emotion:
- Teleurgesteld kijkt Tom naar zijn cijfer. ✅
  (Putting teleurgesteld first adds emphasis: Disappointed, Tom looks at his grade.)
Tom teleurgesteld kijkt naar zijn cijfer. ❌
This sounds wrong in Dutch; you normally keep kijkt directly after the subject in a main clause: Tom kijkt ...
Tom kijkt naar zijn cijfer teleurgesteld.
- This is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural or poetic; Dutch normally places such words before the prepositional phrase (naar zijn cijfer) rather than after it.

So for everyday Dutch, stick with:

Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer.
Or, with emphasis: Teleurgesteld kijkt Tom naar zijn cijfer.

Why is it zijn cijfer and not het cijfer van hem? Are both possible?

Both are technically possible, but zijn cijfer is the normal, idiomatic choice:

zijn cijfer = his grade
het cijfer van hem = the grade of him / the grade belonging to him

In Dutch (as in English), a possessive pronoun (zijn, haar, mijn, etc.) is preferred for this kind of possession:

zijn cijfer – his grade
haar cijfer – her grade
mijn cijfer – my grade

Het cijfer van hem is grammatically fine but feels heavier and usually suggests contrast or emphasis, e.g.:

Niet mijn cijfer, maar het cijfer van hem is verkeerd.
Not my grade, but his grade is wrong.

Does zijn mean the grade definitely belongs to Tom? What if Tom is a girl?

Yes, zijn is the masculine/neutral possessive pronoun meaning his / its.

Because the subject is Tom (a male name), zijn is the correct form:
Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer.

If the subject were a girl, you would normally use haar (her):

Lisa kijkt teleurgesteld naar haar cijfer.
Lisa looks disappointedly at her grade.

Key possessive pronouns:

mijn – my
jouw / je – your (singular, informal)
zijn – his / its
haar – her
ons / onze – our
jullie – your (plural)
hun – their

Why is there no article before cijfer? Why not Tom kijkt naar het cijfer?

The possessive pronoun zijn already plays the role of a determiner, like his in English. In Dutch, you do not add an article in front of a noun that already has a possessive:

zijn cijfer – his grade (✅)
het zijn cijfer – the his grade (❌)
het cijfer – the grade (no possessor mentioned) (✅)

So:

Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer. → Tom looks disappointedly at his grade.
Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar het cijfer. → Tom looks disappointedly at the grade (could be anyone’s).

How would I put this sentence in the past tense? What changes?

Only the finite verb (the conjugated verb) changes; everything else stays the same:

Present: Tom kijkt teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer.
Past: Tom keek teleurgesteld naar zijn cijfer. → Tom looked disappointedly at his grade.

So:

kijken (infinitive)
hij kijkt (present, he looks)
hij keek (past, he looked)

Word order and other words remain unchanged.

How do you pronounce kijkt, teleurgesteld, and cijfer?

Approximate them like this (using English-like sounds):

kijkt
- Sounds roughly like: kiked (one syllable)
- ij = like the English eye
- Final t is clearly pronounced.
teleurgesteld
- Syllables: te-LEUR-ge-steld
- te – like te in terrace but very short
- leur – somewhat like English lur in lurk, but with rounded lips (similar to French leur)
- ge – weak, like guh but very short and soft
- steld – like stelt, final d often sounds close to t.
cijfer
- Sounds roughly like: SIGH-fer
- cij – like English sigh
- fer – like fur, but shorter.

A fairly good English-based approximation of the whole sentence:

Tom kiked te-LEUR-ge-steld naar zain SIGH-fer.

(Where zain tries to approximate zijn with an z + eye sound.)

Is there a more colloquial / slangy way to say this, instead of teleurgesteld?

Yes, you can make it sound more informal by changing teleurgesteld and using a common expression:

Tom baalt van zijn cijfer.
- balen van iets = to be annoyed / gutted / bummed about something.
Tom kijkt flink te balen naar zijn cijfer. (colloquial, though the word order is a bit heavier)
Or slightly less formal but still neutral: Tom is niet blij met zijn cijfer.
- Tom is not happy with his grade.

Teleurgesteld itself is neutral and very common; it’s not particularly formal, just standard language.