"Is the girl eating? No, she is not eating."

[Bronwyn597948]

How do you know when to use meisje and when to use meid

[Dutchesse722]

Meid is not really used all that much, except in certain expressions and in very casual speech among older teen girls and women. Young men as well as adult men might also say something like "Dat is een knappe meid" (That's a good-looking girl) obviously when they see a young woman they like.

[koeppernickel]

So you have to use the feminin pronoun although "het meisje" is neuter?

[NVed4]

Why is the SV inversion in the second part 'Nee, eet ze niet" not accepted? I thought subject verb inversion has to be applied

[CJ.Dennis]

It's just a standard sentence with "no" prepended.

• Ze eet niet - She isn't eating
• Nee, ze eet niet - No, she isn't eating

You invert the subject and verb in questions, although in statements Dutch is a V2 language:

• Ze eet niet - She isn't eating
• Nu eet ze niet - Now she isn't eating

[veev21944]

Why is it ze and not zij

[Dutchesse722]

Both are correct. Ze is used when no emphasis or stress is needed on the pronoun. You can read all about that in this article: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/3734337.