"I have vegetables."

Translation: Ik heb groente.

[Will_2015]

Why "vegetables" is translate as "groente" not "groenten"?

[Simius]

"Groente" is an uncountable noun in Dutch. It is similar to the way "fruit" is used in English. If I say "I have fruit", that usually refers to multiple pieces of fruit. Likewise, "groente" refers to multiple vegetables.

[bz-mof]

But why do I see "groenten" all around? Like in "Bijzondere groenten en fruit". Is this something different or is it a common mistake in Dutch?

[Simius]

No, it is possible to use the plural. But in that case it specifically refers to the types of vegetables. Just like in English you can say: "Apples and pears are different fruits".

[bz-mof]

Aha, thank you! I think I understand. So "Ik eet groenten" refers to at least two types of vegetables and "Ik eet groente" can be everything.

[joepublic]

This makes it very clear, thank you!

[Geeleendje]

in Belgium we say ; ik heb groenten

[Frigooss]

Only in Belgium, not in the Netherlands? I doubt

[linguistkris]

Geeleendje, would you like to explain more? (Or another Belgian/Flemish speaker maybe?)

I had a Northern Dutch teacher at university and a Belgian teacher at college, so I am aware of some of the differences (most pronunciation-wise though, and then quite a lot where there were lexical differences through French loan words), but this is one I didn't know yet.

[Klo.ck]

Hi! I am Flemish as well, and to me 'groente' seemed very wrong as well! I think because we mostly use 'en' for plural (groentEN) (and quite frankly, I just this second had an extensive crisis, thinking about the word 'groente' as an non plural word (but I got my thoughts in order now)) and in this example, 'ik eet groente' it seems wrong to me, because 'groente' is (in Flemish only, apparently) is singular. When you say 'ik eet groente' you refer to multiple vegetables, otherwise you would say 'ik eet een groente' (I eat a vegetable) but since you don't have the 'een' you are eating multiple vegetables, and thus 'ik eet groenten' (I hope this mess of a message (haha) was understandable!