LESSON NOTES

Learn Dutch in Three Minutes #12

Where Are You?

CONTENTS
2 Grammar

# 12
COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
GRAMMAR

The focus of this lesson is talking about location in Dutch

Topic 1: How to ask about others' location

Sentence from the lesson:

Waar ben je?
"Where are you?"

1. When you want to know where something or someone is, you use the verb zijn in
Dutch.
For example:
Waar ben je?
"Where are you?"

2. Let's break it down.

Waar means "Where"
ben is "are." This is the verb "to be," zijn, conjugated for present tense.
And je, as you know, is the word for "you."

3. To answer this question, just say Ik ben + the place where you are.
Ik means "I" and ben is that verb zijn again. Then you add the place.
For example:
Ik ben in de straat
"I am in the street"
Ik ben op kantoor.
"I am at the office"
Ik ben in een bespreking.
"I am in a meeting"
Ik ben in een winkel.
"I am in a store"

DUT CHPOD101.COM LEARN DUT CH I N T HREE MI NUT ES #12 - WHERE ARE YOU? 2
4. The verb zijn is an irregular verb, so you have to pay attention to which form to use.
As we have seen:
ik ben means "I am"
Jij bent means "you are"
hij is means "he is"
For plural forms we use zijn.
For example:
We zijn thuis.
"We are at home."

Language Tip!

The verb zijn can also be used in tthis convenient question that you could ask if you were lost
in the street, for example—Ik weet niet waar ik ben, kunt u mij helpen alstublieft? That means
"I don't know where I am, can you help me please?"

DUT CHPOD101.COM LEARN DUT CH I N T HREE MI NUT ES #12 - WHERE ARE YOU? 3