Borrowing cleaning supplies | Learn Dutch in English

Sentence explanations

1. Kan ik wat schoonmaakspray gebruiken?

   Can I use some cleaning spray?

   Kan ik

   Can I

   wat

   some

   schoonmaakspray

   cleaning spray

   gebruiken

   use

   More detail

   Kan ik is the question pattern for asking whether the speaker may or can do something. The verb kunnen means “can/be able to” and also commonly expresses permission in this kind of request. With ik, its ordinary statement form is ik kan; in a yes/no question, the finite verb comes before the subject: Kan ik ...? Example: Kan ik binnenkomen? — “May I come in?” wat means “some” here: it indicates an unspecified amount of something, without stating an exact quantity. In other contexts, wat can mean “what,” so the surrounding construction determines its meaning. Example: Ik wil wat water. — “I want some water.” schoonmaakspray is a compound noun meaning “cleaning spray.” Its parts are schoonmaak (“cleaning”) and spray (“spray”), but the compound functions as one noun. Dutch commonly forms compounds in this way. Example: De schoonmaakspray staat hier. — “The cleaning spray is here.” gebruiken is the infinitive “to use.” After the modal verb in Kan ik ... gebruiken?, the infinitive comes at the end of the question. The same verb appears as ik gebruik in a simple present statement. Example: Ik gebruik de spray. — “I use the spray.” Together, Kan ik asks for permission, wat schoonmaakspray names an unspecified amount of cleaning spray, and gebruiken supplies the action in the infinitive position. The complete utterance means: “Can I use some cleaning spray?”

2. Het staat onder de gootsteen. Is er iets gemorst?

   It is under the sink. Did something spill?

   Het

   it

   staat

   is situated

   onder

   under

   gootsteen

   sink

   Is er

   is there

   iets

   something

   gemorst

   spilled

   More detail

   Het is a singular neuter pronoun meaning “it” here. Dutch uses het for a neuter singular noun or for a thing whose identity is already understood; the sentence does not identify exactly what it refers to. staat is the present-tense form of staan (“to stand”). With an object or thing as subject, staan can describe its position or location, so het staat means “it is situated” rather than necessarily “it is standing upright.” Useful present forms include ik sta (“I stand”), hij/zij/het staat (“he/she/it stands”), and wij staan (“we stand”). onder means “under” and introduces the location below something. For example, De schoenen staan onder de tafel. means “The shoes are under the table.” gootsteen means “sink,” especially a kitchen sink. The phrase onder de gootsteen therefore means “under the sink”; de is the definite article used with this noun. A useful related phrase is in de gootsteen, “in the sink.” Is er forms an inverted question. is is a form of zijn (“to be”), and er is the existential “there” used to introduce or ask about something present or occurring. In a statement, the corresponding order is Er is ... (“There is ...”); in a question, the verb comes first: Is er ...? (“Is there ...?”). This construction is not the same as asking whether a specific known object is present. iets is the indefinite pronoun “something.” It refers to an unspecified thing. Its negative counterpart is niets, “nothing”: Er is niets gemorst. means “Nothing was spilled.” gemorst is the past participle of morsen, “to spill.” In Is er iets gemorst?, it describes an occurrence whose result is relevant now: literally, “Is something spilled?” or more naturally, “Did something spill?” The same participle appears in the following statement, Er is sap ... gemorst (“Juice spilled ...”). Together, Is er iets gemorst? asks whether an unspecified thing was spilled. The first sentence combines the pronoun het, the location verb staat, and the location phrase onder de gootsteen: “It is under the sink.” The complete utterance is therefore “It is under the sink. Did something spill?”

3. Er is sap op de keukenvloer gemorst.

   Juice spilled on the kitchen floor.

   Er is

   there is

   sap

   juice

   op

   on

   keukenvloer

   kitchen floor

   gemorst

   spilled

   More detail

   Er is begins a Dutch existential/event-reporting construction. Here it does not stand alone as simply “there is”: together with gemorst, it reports that spilling has occurred. is is the present-tense form of zijn used as the auxiliary in this construction, while er is an existential placeholder. sap means “juice.” It is used here without an article, presenting juice as the substance involved rather than specifying a count. A reusable example is: Ik heb sap gemorst. — “I spilled juice.” op marks location on a surface. In op de keukenvloer, it gives the location “on the kitchen floor.” keukenvloer is a compound noun written as one word: keuken (“kitchen”) + vloer (“floor”). The compound means “kitchen floor,” a particular kind of floor. Dutch compounds commonly combine such elements into a single written word. gemorst is the past participle of morsen, “to spill.” With is, it forms the completed passive/event construction is gemorst: something has been spilled. The sentence focuses on the juice and the result, without naming who spilled it. In an active sentence, the same verb can appear as heeft gemorst, for example: Zij heeft water gemorst. — “She spilled water.” Together, Er is ... gemorst reports that spilling has occurred, sap identifies what was spilled, and op de keukenvloer identifies where it happened. The complete meaning is: “Juice spilled on the kitchen floor.”

4. Neem ook de kleine emmer mee, zodat je de mop kunt uitspoelen.

   Take the small bucket too, so you can rinse the mop.

   Neem … mee

   take along

   ook

   also; too

   kleine

   small

   emmer

   bucket

   zodat

   so that

   je … kunt

   you can

   mop

   mop

   More detail

   Neem ... mee is the separable verb meenemen, meaning “to take along.” In this sentence, Neem is its imperative form: it gives a direct instruction to an understood “you.” In Dutch, the particle mee moves to the end of the main clause in this pattern. Example: Neem je jas mee. — “Take your coat along.” ook means “also” or “too.” Here it adds the bucket to something already relevant, without itself specifying a number. Its position after the imperative verb gives the instruction the sense “take the bucket too.” kleine is the inflected form of the adjective klein, “small.” It describes emmer; with the definite article de and this singular common-gender noun, the adjective takes the ending -e: de kleine emmer. The base/comparison pattern is klein — kleiner — het kleinst, “small” — “smaller” — “the smallest.” emmer means “bucket.” The phrase de kleine emmer means “the small bucket”; de marks this as a definite noun phrase, referring to a particular bucket in the situation. Example: De emmer staat buiten. — “The bucket is outside.” zodat introduces a purpose or result clause, commonly translated as “so that.” It connects the instruction with the intended possibility or purpose that follows. The clause after it has its own subject and verb structure. je kunt combines je, “you,” with kunt, the present form of kunnen, “can / be able to.” Kunt is the form used here with je in this clause. The modal verb is followed by the infinitive: je kunt ... uitspoelen means “you can rinse ...”; uitspoelen is the lexical verb and remains at the end of this subordinate clause. Example: Je kunt de doek wassen. — “You can wash the cloth.” mop means “mop.” In de mop, the noun phrase means “the mop,” with de marking a definite noun. The mop is the object of uitspoelen, “to rinse out”; that verb is not part of the selected phrase entry but completes the second clause. Putting the parts together: Neem ook de kleine emmer mee means “Take the small bucket too.” zodat je de mop kunt uitspoelen means “so that you can rinse the mop.” The full utterance is therefore: “Take the small bucket too, so you can rinse the mop.”

5. Dat helpt. Ik breng ze allebei terug als ik klaar ben.

   That helps. I will bring both back when I finish.

   Dat

   that

   helpt

   helps

   Ik

   I

   breng

   bring

   ze

   them

   allebei

   both

   terug

   back

   als

   when

   klaar

   finished

   ben

   am

   More detail

   Dat means “that” here and functions as the subject of helpt. Dutch demonstrative pronouns distinguish forms such as dat and dit; the choice depends on the noun’s grammatical gender and on distance or discourse context, not on the referent being identified by the form alone. Here, the fixed translation supports the meaning “that”. Helpt comes from helpen, “to help”. It is the present-tense form for a third-person singular subject: dat helpt (“that helps”). Compare ik help (“I help”) and hij/zij helpt (“he/she helps”); the -t is part of the third-person singular form here. Ik is the first-person singular subject pronoun, “I”. A useful contrast is wij (“we”), which refers to more than one speaker or includes other people. Breng comes from brengen, “to bring” or “to take”. In this sentence it is the present-tense form used with ik: ik breng. Compare hij brengt, where the third-person singular form has -t. Dutch can use the present tense for a future action when the context makes the future time clear; here the time clause does that. Ze is the object pronoun “them” in this sentence. The fixed translation establishes that it refers to two items, but the pronoun’s form alone does not identify which items. In object position, Dutch ze can also mean “her”; in subject position, the same form can mean “she” or “they”. Its object role and the sentence meaning determine the intended reading here. Allebei means “both” and is used to refer to two people or things. Together, ze allebei means “both of them”. Allemaal is a broader word meaning “all” or “all of them”; unlike allebei, it is not specifically restricted to a pair. Terug means “back”, indicating a return to an earlier place or situation. The combination iets terugbrengen means “to bring something back” or “to return something”; here ze is the object and terug adds the return meaning. Als introduces the time clause here: “when”. It can also introduce a condition meaning “if”, but the fixed translation gives the temporal reading in this sentence. In a Dutch subordinate clause introduced by als, the finite verb normally appears at the end: als ik klaar ben. Klaar is an adjective meaning “finished” or “ready”. Here it describes the speaker’s state after completing the relevant task. It does not itself show person or number; the verb supplies that information. Example: De taak is klaar means “The task is finished.” Ben is the first-person singular present form of zijn, “to be”: ik ben (“I am”). Compare jij bent (“you are”), hij is (“he is”), and wij zijn (“we are”). In als ik klaar ben, ben is at the end because it is the finite verb in the subordinate clause introduced by als. Together, als ik klaar ben means “when I finish”, literally “when I am finished/ready”, with klaar describing the speaker’s state. Ik breng ze allebei terug means “I will bring both of them back.” The complete utterance therefore means “That helps. I will bring both back when I finish.”

6. Laat ze bij mijn deur staan als alles droog is.

   Leave them by my door once everything is dry.

   Laat

   leave

   ze

   them

   bij

   by; at

   mijn

   my

   deur

   door

   als

   when; once

   alles

   everything

   droog

   dry

   is

   is

   More detail

   Laat is the imperative form of laten, whose basic meaning here is “leave” or “let.” Dutch uses this form in an imperative; the form itself does not show whether the addressee is one person or more than one. The pattern Laat ... staan means “leave ... standing” or “let ... remain,” with staan as the infinitive after laten and without te. ze means “them” here. The fixed translation and the preceding context identify the referent as the two items being brought back. As an object pronoun, ze is a common unstressed form for plural “them.” Example: Ik zie ze. — “I see them.” bij marks a nearby location, commonly translated “by” or “at” in this use. bij mijn deur therefore places the items near the speaker’s door, rather than expressing movement toward it. mijn is the possessive form “my.” It identifies the door as belonging or relating to the speaker. Dutch uses mijn with both singular and plural nouns; the noun’s number is not marked on this possessive form. Example: mijn boeken — “my books.” deur means “door.” Its plural is deuren. Here it is singular because the phrase refers to one door: mijn deur — “my door.” als introduces the time condition “when” or “once” in this sentence. The fixed translation gives the temporal reading here: the leaving is to happen after the condition has been met. Example: Ik kom als ik klaar ben. — “I’ll come when I’m finished.” alles means “everything.” It is an indefinite pronoun referring to the whole relevant set or situation, not to a separately counted quantity. In alles ... is, it functions grammatically as a singular subject. droog means “dry.” Here it is a predicate adjective after is, describing the condition of alles. Its comparative is droger (“drier”), and its superlative is het droogst (“the driest”). Example: De kleren zijn droog. — “The clothes are dry.” is is the third-person singular present form of zijn (“to be”). Because alles is grammatically singular, Dutch uses is: alles is droog — “everything is dry.” Together, Laat ze ... staan gives the instruction to leave the items in place, bij mijn deur specifies that place, and als alles droog is gives the time condition. The complete meaning is: “Leave them by my door once everything is dry.”

7. Ik waardeer je hulp bij deze rommel.

   I appreciate your help with this mess.

   Ik

   I

   waardeer

   appreciate

   je

   your

   hulp

   help

   bij

   with

   deze

   this

   rommel

   mess

   More detail

   Ik is the Dutch first-person singular subject pronoun: “I.” It is the subject of waardeer, so the speaker performs the appreciating. The object form is mij or the unstressed me, as in Ze helpen me (“They help me”); that is different from the subject form ik. waardeer means “appreciate” here. Its base form is waarderen; waardeer is the present-tense form used with ik. Dutch present-tense verbs commonly use the stem with ik: ik waardeer (“I appreciate”). For a reusable example, Ik waardeer je eerlijkheid means “I appreciate your honesty.” je means “your” before hulp in this sentence. This is the unstressed possessive form, also written jouw when the possessive needs emphasis: je hulp is “your help,” while jouw hulp can contrast your help with someone else’s. je can also be an object pronoun in other sentences, but its role here is possessive because it occurs directly before the noun hulp. hulp means “help.” It is a noun and is commonly used both for assistance in general and for a helpful action or contribution, depending on context. A useful related expression is iemand helpen, “to help someone”; hulp is the noun, while helpen is the verb. For example, Bedankt voor je hulp means “Thanks for your help.” bij means “with” in the phrase bij deze rommel: it links the help to the mess. Dutch bij has other uses, including “at” or “by” for a place or situation, so its exact English translation depends on the relation expressed. For example, Ik ben bij mijn deur means “I am by my door.” deze means “this” and points to one nearby or contextually identified singular noun. Here it modifies rommel, a singular noun with the article de, so the form is deze; the demonstrative is not itself the noun’s referent independently. With a singular het-word, Dutch uses dit, as in dit huis (“this house”); with plural nouns, deze is also used. rommel means “mess.” It is a noun referring here to the messy material or disorder being discussed. Dutch commonly uses rommel as a mass-like singular noun, as in Er ligt rommel op de vloer (“There is mess/junk on the floor”). Together, Ik waardeer gives “I appreciate,” and je hulp identifies whose help is appreciated. bij deze rommel specifies what the help concerns: “with this mess.” The complete meaning is therefore “I appreciate your help with this mess.”

8. Zorg er gewoon voor dat de vloer daarna niet glad is.

   Just make sure the floor is not slippery afterward.

   Zorg er gewoon voor … dat

   just make sure that

   vloer

   floor

   daarna

   afterward

   niet

   not

   glad

   slippery

   is

   is

   More detail

   Zorg er gewoon voor ... dat is a reusable Dutch pattern meaning “just make sure that …”. Zorg is the imperative of zorgen (“to take care”); in this construction, ervoor zorgen dat ... means “to make sure that ...”. The fixed sentence uses the shortened form Zorg er ... voor, with er and voor belonging to the construction. Gewoon softens the instruction here as “just” or “simply”; it is not part of the verb itself. After dat, Dutch places the finite verb at the end of this subordinate clause. Vloer means “floor”. Its useful plural is vloeren; the noun is commonly used with the definite article de, as in de vloer (“the floor”). Here, the fixed translation identifies the floor as the relevant surface, without adding a different referent. Daarna means “afterward” or “after that”. It marks a later time relative to an understood earlier action or event. Example: Daarna sluiten we de deur. — “Afterward, we close the door.” Niet is the ordinary Dutch negation word “not”. It negates the following description here: the required condition is that the floor is not slippery. It is different from geen, which is used to negate an indefinite noun phrase rather than an adjective such as glad. Glad means “smooth” or, in this context, “slippery”. The surrounding meaning selects the safety-related sense “slippery”; the word can also describe a smooth surface. Example: De trap is glad. — “The stairs are slippery.” Is is the present-tense third-person singular form of zijn, “to be”. The form agrees with the singular subject de vloer; its position at the end reflects the subordinate clause introduced by dat. The present form states the condition that should hold afterward. Together, Zorg er gewoon voor introduces a direct instruction, dat introduces the condition to be ensured, and de vloer daarna niet glad is says that the floor must not be slippery afterward. Thus the complete utterance means: “Just make sure the floor is not slippery afterward.”