Het is prettig om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten.

Het here is a dummy subject, just like it in English in sentences such as It is nice to sit outside.

So:

• Het is prettig ... = It is pleasant ...

The word het does not refer to a specific thing here. It is simply needed to make the sentence complete.

This is very common in Dutch with expressions like:

• Het is leuk om... = It is nice to...
• Het is moeilijk om... = It is difficult to...
• Het is belangrijk om... = It is important to...

Prettig means something like pleasant, nice, or agreeable.

It is similar to fijn and sometimes to leuk, but the tone is a bit different:

• prettig = pleasant, comfortable, agreeable
• fijn = nice, pleasant, often more personal or emotional
• leuk = nice, fun, enjoyable

In this sentence, prettig sounds natural because it describes a pleasant situation or experience.

Compare:

• Het is prettig om in de tuin te zitten.
  = It is pleasant to sit in the garden.

• Het is fijn om in de tuin te zitten.
  = It is nice / feels good to sit in the garden.

• Het is leuk om in de tuin te zitten.
  = It is nice / fun to sit in the garden.

All three are possible, but prettig emphasizes comfort and pleasantness.

In this sentence, om ... te + infinitive introduces the action that is being described.

So:

• Het is prettig om ... te zitten
  = It is pleasant to sit ...

This structure is very common after adjectives like:

• moeilijk = difficult
• makkelijk = easy
• leuk = nice
• belangrijk = important
• prettig = pleasant

Examples:

• Het is moeilijk om Nederlands te leren.
  = It is difficult to learn Dutch.

• Het is leuk om samen te koken.
  = It is nice to cook together.

In English, we often just say to sit, to learn, to cook. In Dutch, that often becomes om ... te + infinitive.

Te is the usual marker used before an infinitive in many Dutch constructions, similar to English to.

So:

• te zitten = to sit

In this sentence, om and te work together:

• om ... te zitten

This is a fixed pattern in Dutch.

A few comparisons:

• Ik probeer te slapen. = I try to sleep.
• Hij vergeet te bellen. = He forgets to call.
• Het is prettig om buiten te zitten. = It is pleasant to sit outside.

So zitten alone would not fit this structure here.

’s avonds means in the evening or in the evenings, depending on context.

The ’s is an old shortened form from des, an old genitive form. You do not need to produce the historical form yourself, but it helps to know that this is a fixed expression.

Common time expressions like this are:

• ’s morgens = in the morning
• ’s middags = in the afternoon
• ’s avonds = in the evening
• ’s nachts = at night

These are learned as set phrases.

A few useful notes:

• The apostrophe comes before the s: ’s avonds
• In modern Dutch, you usually just memorize it as one time expression
• It often means in the evenings in a general sense, not only one specific evening

In normal speech, ’s avonds is often pronounced more smoothly than it looks.

Roughly:

• ’s avonds ≈ s-AH-vonts

A few things to notice:

• The ’s is usually just an s sound attached to the next word
• avond has a long aa sound
• The final d in avond is often pronounced more like a t sound because of final devoicing, especially before a pause

So learners often hear something close to:

• savonds

That is normal.

Samen means together.

In this sentence:

• om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten

it appears before in de tuin, which is a very natural position.

Dutch adverbs such as samen can sometimes move around a bit, but not every position sounds equally natural.

These are possible:

• Het is prettig om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten.
• Het is prettig om samen ’s avonds in de tuin te zitten.

The first version is probably the most natural here.

Why? Because Dutch often places small adverbial elements like time and manner in a fairly flexible middle field, but native usage decides what sounds best. In this sentence, ’s avonds samen in de tuin flows naturally as:

• time: ’s avonds
• togetherness/manner: samen
• place: in de tuin

Because tuin is a de-word.

So:

• de tuin = the garden

Not:

• het tuin

Dutch nouns have grammatical gender/classes, and you mostly just have to learn whether a noun takes de or het.

Examples:

• de tuin
• de straat
• de kamer
• het huis
• het raam

So in de tuin simply means in the garden.

Because after om ... te, the infinitive usually goes to the end of the infinitive clause.

So the structure is:

• Het is prettig
• om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten

Inside that second part, zitten comes last.

This is very typical Dutch word order.

Compare:

• Het is leuk om boeken te lezen.
• Het is belangrijk om op tijd te komen.
• Het is fijn om buiten te eten.

In all of these, the infinitive is at or near the end.

This often feels more verb-final than English.

Dutch uses verbs like zitten, staan, and liggen quite often where English is less specific.

Here, zitten literally means to sit, and it is the natural verb because the activity is specifically sitting together in the garden.

Dutch commonly uses these posture verbs:

• zitten = sit
• staan = stand
• liggen = lie

Examples:

• We zitten in de tuin. = We are sitting in the garden.
• De fles staat op tafel. = The bottle is on the table.
• Het boek ligt op het bed. = The book is lying on the bed.

So in this sentence, zitten is not just possible; it is exactly the right verb if the image is people sitting together outside.

It can feel a bit like either in the evening or in the evenings, depending on context.

In a sentence like this:

• Het is prettig om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten.

it often has a general meaning:

• It is pleasant to sit together in the garden in the evenings

So it is not necessarily about one specific evening. It can describe a habit or a general truth.

If you wanted one specific evening, Dutch would often make that clearer with context, for example:

• vanavond = this evening / tonight

Compare:

• ’s avonds = in the evening / in the evenings
• vanavond = this evening / tonight

In standard Dutch, with this kind of sentence, om is normally used.

So:

• Het is prettig om ’s avonds samen in de tuin te zitten.
  is correct and natural.

Without om, the sentence would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in normal standard Dutch.

After adjectives like prettig, leuk, belangrijk, moeilijk, the pattern om ... te + infinitive is the usual one.

So as a learner, it is best to remember:

• het is + adjective + om ... te + infinitive

For example:

• Het is leuk om te reizen.
• Het is moeilijk om dit te begrijpen.
• Het is prettig om buiten te zitten.