De kat heeft een lange tong.

Kat is a de-word in Dutch, so its singular definite article is de: de kat.

In Dutch, every noun is either a de-word or a het-word:

• de kat = the cat
• het huis = the house

Unfortunately, for singular nouns, you often just have to learn which article belongs with the noun. In the plural, both use de:

• de katten = the cats
• de huizen = the houses

Heeft is the third person singular form of the verb hebben = to have.

The subject is de kat = the cat, which is third person singular, so you use:

• ik heb = I have
• jij/u hebt/heeft = you have
• hij/zij/het heeft = he/she/it has
• de kat heeft = the cat has

So De kat heeft... literally means The cat has...

Een here is the indefinite article, meaning a/an.

So:

• de tong = the tongue
• een tong = a tongue

In the sentence:

• De kat heeft een lange tong = The cat has a long tongue

So the cat is specific (the cat), but the tongue is introduced as a long tongue.

This is because Dutch adjectives usually take -e when they come before a noun.

Compare:

• een lange tong = a long tongue
• de lange tong = the long tongue

The basic adjective is lang = long, but before tong it becomes lange.

A useful beginner rule:

• adjective before a noun: usually add -e
• adjective used after the verb often stays basic:
  • De tong is lang = The tongue is long

The adjective lang simply takes the normal adjective ending -e:

• lang → lange

This is very common in Dutch:

• groot → grote
• klein → kleine
• mooi → mooie

So een lange tong follows a very regular pattern.

Tong is a de-word:

• de tong = the tongue

That matters when you use the definite article:

• de tong not
• het tong

It can also matter with pronouns and adjective patterns later on.

The word order is the standard Dutch main-clause pattern:

Subject + finite verb + rest

• De kat = subject
• heeft = finite verb
• een lange tong = object/noun phrase

So:

• De kat heeft een lange tong.

This is very similar to English:

• The cat has a long tongue.

That would not mean the same thing in normal Dutch.

De kat heeft een lange tong literally describes the cat’s physical tongue.

A structure like lang van tong would sound unusual here and could suggest an idiomatic or figurative meaning rather than simple physical description. For a straightforward body-part description, heeft is the natural choice:

• De kat heeft een lange tong.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

duh kat hayft uhn LANG-uh tong

A few notes:

• de often sounds like duh
• kat has a short a, like in British cat
• heeft has a sound a bit like hayft
• een is often pronounced weakly, almost like uhn or even just a very light vowel
• lange ends with a soft -uh
• tong has the Dutch o, which is not exactly the same as English tongue

If you want more natural speech rhythm, Dutch speakers may say een quite lightly:

• De kat heeft ’n lange tong. This spelling with ’n is informal, but it reflects the common pronunciation.

Yes. Although it is written een, in normal speech it is often reduced.

Written:

• een

Common pronunciation:

• something like uhn
• sometimes very weak, almost disappearing into the sentence rhythm

This is similar to how English a is usually weak in speech.

So in careful reading you may notice een, but in everyday spoken Dutch it is often much less clear.

Dutch has just one indefinite article: een.

English changes between a and an depending on sound:

• a cat
• an apple

Dutch does not do that. It always uses een:

• een kat
• een appel

So there is no Dutch equivalent of the English a/an distinction.

Een lange tong is a noun phrase:

• een = article
• lange = adjective
• tong = noun

Together, it functions as the thing the cat has: the direct object of heeft.

So the structure is:

• De kat = subject
• heeft = verb
• een lange tong = direct object

Yes. You can replace de kat with hij if you mean he, or sometimes ze if you mean she, depending on the cat.

Examples:

• Hij heeft een lange tong. = He has a long tongue.
• Ze heeft een lange tong. = She has a long tongue.

If you are referring to kat purely as a grammatical noun, learners sometimes wonder about het, but for an actual animal, Dutch commonly uses natural gender pronouns when known.

Yes, it is grammatically correct and natural as a simple descriptive sentence.

It is a basic pattern you can reuse easily:

• De hond heeft lange poten. = The dog has long legs.
• Het paard heeft een korte staart. = The horse has a short tail.
• De giraffe heeft een lange nek. = The giraffe has a long neck.

So De kat heeft een lange tong is a good model sentence for talking about physical features.