De lamp hangt hoger dan het schilderij.

Dutch often uses a position verb where English would simply use to be.

Here, hangen means to hang and is used for things that are suspended or mounted, such as:

• lamps
• pictures
• coats
• signs

So De lamp hangt hoger dan het schilderij is more natural Dutch than De lamp is hoger dan het schilderij.

You might hear is hoger dan in some contexts, but hangt is the more idiomatic choice here because both objects are the kind of things that hang.

hangt comes from the infinitive hangen.

This is the present tense, third person singular:

• ik hang = I hang
• jij hangt = you hang
• de lamp hangt = the lamp hangs

For regular verbs in Dutch, the he/she/it form usually gets -t:

• werken → werkt
• wonen → woont
• hangen → hangt

So de lamp hangt means the lamp hangs.

hoger is the comparative form of hoog (high).

Just like in English:

• high → higher
• hoog → hoger

So:

• hoog = high
• hoger = higher

The sentence is making a comparison, so Dutch needs the comparative form.

Because hoger is not being used directly before a noun here.

Compare:

• de hogere lamp = the higher lamp
  
  • here the adjective comes before the noun, so it usually gets -e
• de lamp hangt hoger = the lamp hangs higher
  
  • here it comes after the verb, so there is no -e

In this sentence, hoger is used predicatively/adverbially after the verb, so the plain form is used.

In standard Dutch:

• dan is used for inequality/comparison
  
  • hoger dan = higher than
• als is used for equality
  
  • even hoog als = as high as

So:

• De lamp hangt hoger dan het schilderij. = The lamp hangs higher than the painting.
• De lamp hangt even hoog als het schilderij. = The lamp hangs as high as the painting.

This is a very common thing learners ask about, because some dialects may use als differently, but standard Dutch here is dan.

Dutch nouns have two main grammatical article types:

• de words
• het words

So:

• de lamp
• het schilderij

Unfortunately, this is something you often have to learn with each noun.

A small helpful pattern:

• many diminutives are always het
• nouns ending in -ij are often de, but schilderij is het

So it is best to learn vocabulary as:

• de lamp
• het schilderij

not just lamp and schilderij by themselves.

Yes, but the normal order here is very straightforward:

• De lamp = subject
• hangt = verb
• hoger dan het schilderij = comparison

This follows normal Dutch main-clause word order, where the finite verb is in the second position.

You could also say:

• Het schilderij hangt lager dan de lamp.
• Hoger dan het schilderij hangt de lamp.

But the original sentence is the most neutral and natural way to say it.

Not necessarily as a full statement by itself, but it strongly suggests that the painting is being used as another object in the same spatial comparison.

Because schilderij is the thing being compared with the lamp, the sentence implies a scene where both objects are placed somewhere, and a painting is of course very often hanging on a wall.

So the focus is:

• the lamp is higher
• than the painting

The sentence does not explicitly say het schilderij hangt, but that idea fits naturally.

schilderij usually means painting.

If you want a more general word like picture, Dutch often uses:

• foto = photo
• plaatje = picture/image
• afbeelding = image/illustration

So if the object really is a painted work of art, schilderij is the right word.

Yes. Dutch uses several common positional verbs where English often uses to be.

For example:

• staan = to stand
• liggen = to lie
• zitten = to sit / be located
• hangen = to hang

Dutch chooses among these based on how something is positioned.

So a Dutch speaker often thinks in terms of:

• Is it standing upright? → staan
• Is it lying flat? → liggen
• Is it attached/hanging? → hangen

That is why De lamp hangt hoger dan het schilderij sounds very natural in Dutch.