De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.

The intern reads the notes in the library.

Breakdown of De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.

• lezen: to read
• in: in
• de bibliotheek: the library
• de aantekening: the note
• de stagiaire: the (female) intern

Questions & Answers about De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.

What does stagiaire mean exactly, and is it commonly used in Dutch?

Stagiaire means intern / trainee, someone doing a stage (internship, practical training).

A few points:

• It’s a loanword from French, so it looks and sounds a bit French.
• It’s quite common in Dutch in education and work contexts:
  • Een stagiaire in het ziekenhuis – an intern in the hospital
  • We zoeken een stagiaire marketing – we’re looking for a marketing intern
• In practice, stagiaire is used for both male and female interns nowadays.
  You might also see stagiair (without final e) for a male intern, but stagiaire is very common and neutral in many contexts.

Why is it de stagiaire and not het stagiaire?

Dutch has two definite articles:

• de – for:
  • all plural nouns
  • most singular common-gender nouns (de-words)
• het – for:
  • most singular neuter nouns (het-words)

Stagiaire is a common-gender noun, so it uses de:

• de stagiaire, een stagiaire

Compare:

• de man, de vrouw, de docent
• het huis, het boek, het kind

So you say:

• De stagiaire leest… – The intern reads…
  not Het stagiaire.

Why is it leest and not lees or lezen?

The verb is lezen (to read). In the present tense:

• ik lees – I read
• jij / u leest – you read
• hij / zij / het leest – he / she / it reads
• wij lezen – we read
• jullie lezen – you (plural) read
• zij lezen – they read

The subject here is de stagiaire (third person singular, like hij / zij), so you use leest:

• De stagiaire leest… – The intern reads…

You would only use lees with ik:

• Ik lees de aantekeningen. – I read the notes.

Why is de aantekeningen plural? Could it also be de aantekening?

Aantekening means note (one note).
Aantekeningen means notes (more than one).

In normal usage, when talking about study notes, meeting notes, etc., Dutch behaves like English:

• We usually talk about notes in the plural:
  • Ik maak aantekeningen. – I’m taking notes.
  • Ze bekijkt haar aantekeningen. – She looks at her notes.

De aantekening (singular) is possible, but it refers to one specific note:

• Ik begrijp deze aantekening niet. – I don’t understand this (one) note.

In the sentence you gave, it’s logical that the intern reads multiple notes, so the plural aantekeningen is used.

Why is it de aantekeningen and not een aantekeningen?

Two reasons:

1. Plural nouns in Dutch always take de, never een:

   • de boeken – the books
   • de mensen – the people
   • de aantekeningen – the notes
     There is no form een aantekeningen.

2. Semantically, we are talking about specific notes (for example, the notes from a lecture, or the notes already known in the context), so the definite article de fits:

   • De aantekeningen – the (known, specific) notes

If you wanted to say some notes in a more general, non-specific way, you could say:

• De stagiaire leest aantekeningen. – The intern reads notes. (no article, more general)

Why does Dutch repeat de so much: de stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek?

Dutch tends to place the article in front of every noun phrase:

• de stagiaire – the intern
• de aantekeningen – the notes
• de bibliotheek – the library

Unlike English, you cannot share one de across several nouns:

• ✅ De stagiaire en de docent – The intern and the teacher
• ❌ De stagiaire en docent (only possible in very specific stylistic contexts)

So in your sentence, each noun phrase gets its own article, resulting in three times de. This is normal and sounds natural.

Why is it in de bibliotheek and not something like naar de bibliotheek?

Different prepositions express different relationships:

• in de bibliotheek – in the library, i.e. inside the library
• naar de bibliotheek – to the library, movement towards the library
• bij de bibliotheek – at / near the library

Since the action (reading) is happening inside the library, in is the correct preposition:

• De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.
  – The intern is reading the notes in the library.

If you wanted to express movement, you’d use naar:

• De stagiaire gaat naar de bibliotheek om de aantekeningen te lezen.
  – The intern goes to the library to read the notes.

Can I change the word order and say De stagiaire leest in de bibliotheek de aantekeningen?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct, but the neutral and most common order is:

• De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.

Placing in de bibliotheek earlier (before de aantekeningen) adds a slight emphasis on the location:

• De stagiaire leest in de bibliotheek de aantekeningen.
  – more like: It is in the library that the intern reads the notes.

In simple main clauses, Dutch prefers:

1. Subject
2. Conjugated verb
3. Direct object
4. Place / time complements

So your original sentence follows the standard pattern.

Could you also say Een stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can.

• De stagiaire…
  – Refers to a specific intern that the speaker assumes the listener can identify.
• Een stagiaire…
  – Refers to some intern / an intern, not previously known or not specific.

Examples:

• De stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.
  – That particular intern (that we know or already mentioned) is reading the notes.
• Een stagiaire leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.
  – There is an intern (unspecified, one of several) who is reading the notes in the library.

How do you pronounce stagiaire, aantekeningen, and bibliotheek?

Approximate English-based pronunciation:

• stagiaire:

  • Like: sta-zhair-uh
  • sta – as in *sta*nd
  • gia – like the French j in journal (a soft zh sound)
  • ire – like English air
  • Final e – a short, unstressed uh sound (schwa)

• aantekeningen:

  • Like: AHN-tay-kuh-ning-uhn
  • aan – long aa as in a long aah
  • te – tuh (unstressed)
  • ke – kuh
  • ningen – ning-uhn, both e’s are short, unstressed

• bibliotheek:

  • Like: biblee-o-tayk
  • bib – as in English bib
  • lio – lee-o
  • theek – tayk, with a long ee sound

For more accuracy, you can look up audio on an online dictionary (e.g. Van Dale or Wiktionary).

Is bibliotheek always “library”? Any gender or article rules?

Bibliotheek means primarily library (a place where books are kept and you can borrow them).

• It is a de-word:
  • de bibliotheek – the library
  • een bibliotheek – a library
  • de bibliotheken – the libraries (plural)

You’ll also see it in compounds:

• universiteitsbibliotheek – university library
• stadsbibliotheek – city library

Why is the first word De capitalized, but the other de’s are not?

Dutch capitalisation rules are very similar to English:

• The first word of a sentence is capitalised:
  • De stagiaire…
• The same word inside the sentence is not capitalised:
  • …leest de aantekeningen in de bibliotheek.

So only the first De is capitalised because it starts the sentence; it’s not a different word or special form.