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Lesson Transcript

Hallo allemaal! Ik heet Marleen. Hi everybody! I’m Marleen.
Welcome to DutchPod101.com’s “Nederlands in 3 minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Dutch.
In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about nationality. This is the second part of our lesson on the verb zijn, which is "to be".
This verb is also used to talk about location, to say things like "I am in the street" or "He is in the room", so it's very useful!
When you want to know where something or someone is, you use the verb zijn in Dutch.
For example, when someone asks you on the phone Waar ben je? That means "Where are you?"
Let's break it down.
Waar means "Where"
ben is "are” This is the verb “to be”, zijn, conjugated for "you" in the present tense when you are asking a question.
And je, as you know, is the word for "you".
Altogether, it is Waar ben je?
[slowly] Waar ben je?
Answering this question is very easy! You just say Ik ben and then the place where you are.
Ik means “I” and
ben is that verb zijn again.
Then you add the place. So for example, you can say Ik ben op straat which is "I am on the street"
[slowly] Ik ben op straat.
Now let’s see a few other possible answers with “I”-
"I am at the office" would be Ik ben op kantoor.
"I am in a meeting" would be Ik ben in een bespreking.
"I am in a store" would be Ik ben in een winkel.
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”. But we also have *Jij bent* - “you are” and *hij is* - “he is”. For plural forms we use zijn.
For instance, you could say - We zijn thuis.
That means “We are at home.”
Now it’s time for Marleen’s Insights.
The verb zijn can also be used in this 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?”
[slowly] Ik weet niet waar ik ben, kunt u mij helpen alstublieft?
In this lesson, we learned how to talk about your location thanks to the verb zijn. Next time, we’ll learn how to talk about age using the same verb. So do you want to know how to ask somebody’s age? I’ll be waiting for you in the next Nederlands in 3 minuten lesson.
Tot ziens!

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