Lesson 4: And?

The letters of the alphabet will be pronounced. We will look at the question form of a sentence.
Some more prepositions will be given and the word "en" {and} is used.
Some diphthongs are given.
Spelling
Pronunciation
Grammar
Vocabulary
Sentences

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Spelling

The Dutch language has many diphthongs (two or more vowels forming one sound together).
We'll introduce some more:
"eu", "oi", "ooi"
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Dutch also has some sort-a consonant diphthong: one of them is "ng", it sounds the same as in English.

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Pronunciation

Some weirder sounding diphthongs:
The short vowels "a", "e", "o" and "u" are pronounced as the long vowels "aa", "ee", "oo" rsp. "uu" when they are in a so-called 'open' syllable. An open syllable ends with a single consonant and is followed by another vowel.
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So examples are: "tAken", "gOdin", "gEven", "Uren".
NOT open syllables are: "lAchen", "wErken", "hEbben", "hEb".
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But the "e" is pronounced as a mute "e" when the emphasis (stress) is not on the syllable (more about this in another lesson).
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The "a", "o" and "u" are also pronounced long when the are at the end of a word (or used as a single letter, but then the word would consist of this single letter, and would therefore end with the letter, so what am I getting on about?), like in "ja", "zo" and "nu".
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Finally the letters of the alphabet as promounced:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X IJ Y Z

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Grammar

Dutch uses the word "en" like the English use the word {and}, to concatenate two sentences, like in
{the cat eats the fish and the dog eats the cat}
"de kat eet de vis en de hond eet de kat"
or two objects, like in
{the dog eats the cat and the fish}
"de hond eet de kat en de vis"
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Questions are only a bit different from the English. The English uses the {do} verb a lot in questions.
{Do you think so?}
The Dutch doesn't have this concept, it justs reverses the object and the verb, like with the English verbs {are}, {can} and {will} ({Are you sweet?})
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The normal form is: SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
The question form is: VERB SUBJECT OBJECT?
Like in: "Is hij lief?"
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The verb keeps the same form as in the normal form, with an exception of the second person singular,
the "jij" form, this changes to the "ik" form, so without the "t", like in:
"Jij bent lief. Ben jij dik?"
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Like we mentioned in the pronounciation chapter, the vowels "a", "e', "o" and "u" in an open syllable are pronounced long. In written form the opposite applies, the diphthongs "aa", "ee", "oo" and "uu" in an open syllable are written in the short form. This happens when the verb STEM has this form and is conjugated in the multiple form with the "en", like in:
"loop" - "lopen"
"raad" - "raden"
"leer" - "leren"

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Vocabulary

deur door [de]
en and
in in (a house), at (a plane),
on (a committee)
ja yes
lopen to walk [loop lopen]
mooi beautiful, fine, pretty, handsome
nee no
op on (the chair), upon (the roof),
at (school), in (an island)
staan to stand [sta staat staan]
stoel chair [de (m)]
zingen to sing [zing zingen]

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Sentences

Ben jij vies? Nee, ik ben niet vies. Are you dirty? No, I'm not dirty.
De man en de vrouw zitten op een stoel. The man and the woman are sitting on a chair.
Ik sta in het huis. I'm standing in the house.
Jij loopt, hij staat en ik zit. You walk, he stands and I sit.
Ja, jullie zingen mooi. Yes, you sing beautifully.

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