Adjectival past participles (de vergrote foto)

Past Participles as Adjectives

When you use a past participle to describe a noun (as an attributive adjective), it usually gets an -e ending, just like regular adjectives. Because you are adding a syllable, standard Dutch spelling rules for open and closed syllables apply, which can cause vowels and consonants to shift.

Dropping Double Vowels

If the past participle has a long vowel spelled with double letters (like aa, ee, oo, or uu), adding -e makes the syllable "open". To maintain the long vowel sound, you drop one of the written vowels.

For example, vergroten (to enlarge) has the past participle vergroot. As an adjective, it becomes vergrote (not vergrootte, which is the simple past tense).

Similarly, verhogen (to increase) -> verhoogd -> verhoogde:

Regular Additions

For many verbs, adding the -e doesn't require any vowel or consonant shifts. You simply attach it directly to the end of the past participle.

For instance, wissen (to delete) -> gewist -> gewiste:

This also applies to longer verbs like comprimeren (to compress) -> gecomprimeerd -> gecomprimeerde:

Doubling Consonants

If the past participle ends in a single consonant immediately after a short vowel, adding -e would change the vowel sound. To keep the vowel short, you must double the final consonant.

Take the verb redden (to save). Its past participle is gered. To add the -e, you double the d, making it geredde. Notice how both grammar rules appear in the next sentence:

Vocabulary in Context

As you practice these spelling shifts, you will also see them applied frequently with photography and digital media vocabulary.