Questions & Answers about We maken de soep.
The ik form is maak, so why does maken only have one "a"?
This is because of the vowel dropping rule for open syllables. When we add -en to make the plural verb, the word splits into syllables like this: ma-ken. Because the first syllable ends in a vowel, it is an "open" syllable. In Dutch, a single vowel at the end of an open syllable automatically gets a long sound, so we drop the extra "a".
Does the single "a" in maken sound different from the double "aa" in maak?
No, they sound exactly the same! Both have the long "a" sound (similar to the "a" in the English word "father"). The spelling changes to maken just to follow Dutch spelling rules, but the long vowel sound remains.
Is there a difference between using we and wij in this sentence?
They both mean "we", but wij is the emphasized form and we is unstressed. Unless you specifically want to emphasize who is making the soup (for example: "We are making the soup, not them"), it is much more natural to use the everyday, unstressed form we.
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