Hoe heet onze nieuwe buurman?

In Dutch, the verb heten means to be called / to have the name.

So:

• Hoe heet hij? = What is his name? / What is he called?
• Ik heet Anna. = My name is Anna.

In this sentence, heet is the third-person singular form, used with onze nieuwe buurman.

Hoe usually means how, but in the fixed expression Hoe heet ...?, it is used idiomatically to ask for someone’s name.

So even though a word-for-word translation might look like How is our new neighbor called?, the natural English meaning is What is our new neighbor’s name?

This is just a normal Dutch way to ask someone’s name.

In a direct question, Dutch usually puts the conjugated verb in the second position, right after the question word.

So:

• Hoe = question word
• heet = conjugated verb
• onze nieuwe buurman = subject

That gives:

• Hoe heet onze nieuwe buurman?

The order ... buurman heet is what you often get in a subordinate clause, for example:

• Ik weet niet hoe onze nieuwe buurman heet.
• I don’t know what our new neighbor’s name is.

So:

• direct question → Hoe heet onze nieuwe buurman?
• subordinate clause → ... hoe onze nieuwe buurman heet

Heet is the present tense singular form of heten used with he/she/it or any singular noun.

A quick overview:

• ik heet = I am called
• jij heet / heet jij? = you are called / are you called?
• hij heet = he is called
• wij heten = we are called
• jullie heten = you all are called
• zij heten = they are called

Because buurman is singular, Dutch uses heet.

Onze means our here.

Dutch has two common forms of our:

• ons
• onze

As a basic rule:

• use ons with singular neuter nouns
• use onze with de-words and with all plural nouns

Buurman is a de-word, so you say:

• onze buurman = our neighbor

Compare:

• ons huis = our house (huis is neuter, an het-word)
• onze auto = our car
• onze buren = our neighbors

In Dutch, adjectives before a noun usually take an -e ending.

So:

• de nieuwe buurman
• onze nieuwe buurman

You often learn it like this:

• before a noun, adjectives usually become -e
• one major exception is with an indefinite singular neuter noun: een nieuw huis

Since buurman is a de-word, the adjective must be:

• nieuwe buurman

Buurman means male neighbor.

It is made up of:

• buur = neighbor
• man = man

So it specifically refers to a male neighbor.

Related words:

• de buurvrouw = the female neighbor
• de buur = the neighbor (sometimes more general)
• de buren = the neighbors

Because the sentence says buurman, we know the new neighbor is male.

It is a de-word:

• de buurman

That matters because it affects other words in the sentence, such as:

• onze instead of ons
• nieuwe with -e

So:

• de buurman
• onze nieuwe buurman

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Hoe ≈ hoo
• heet ≈ hate but with a pure long vowel, not the English diphthong
• onze ≈ ON-zuh
• nieuwe ≈ roughly NEE-uw-uh
• buurman ≈ BYUR-mahn or BURE-mahn depending on accent, with the Dutch uu sound

A few pronunciation notes:

• oe in hoe sounds like the vowel in food
• ee in heet is a long e
• ui is not in this sentence, but uu in buurman is a typical Dutch front rounded vowel that English does not really have
• the final -e in onze and nieuwe is usually a weak uh sound

You can translate it that way to understand the structure, but it is not natural English.

A helpful literal gloss is:

• Hoe = how
• heet = is called
• onze nieuwe buurman = our new neighbor

But the natural English translation is:

• What is our new neighbor’s name?

So the literal translation can help you learn the Dutch pattern, but it should not be the English sentence you normally say.

Yes, but Hoe heet onze nieuwe buurman? is a very normal and natural way to ask.

Some related possibilities are:

• Wat is de naam van onze nieuwe buurman? = What is the name of our new neighbor?
• Weet je hoe onze nieuwe buurman heet? = Do you know what our new neighbor’s name is?

The version with heten is the most everyday and idiomatic for asking someone’s name.

Because onze already functions as a determiner, like our in English.

In both English and Dutch, you normally do not combine our with the in this kind of phrase.

So:

• our new neighbor
• onze nieuwe buurman

Not:

• the our new neighbor
• de onze nieuwe buurman in this meaning

You would change the noun, and sometimes the verb too.

For a female neighbor:

• Hoe heet onze nieuwe buurvrouw?
• What is our new female neighbor’s name?

For more than one neighbor:

• Hoe heten onze nieuwe buren?
• What are our new neighbors called?

Notice the verb change:

• singular: heet
• plural: heten