Breakdown of De auto is niet goedkoop, maar duur.
zijn
to be
niet
not
de auto
the car
maar
but
duur
expensive
goedkoop
cheap
Questions & Answers about De auto is niet goedkoop, maar duur.
This lesson is about geen, so why does this sentence use niet?
Why does niet come right before goedkoop?
In Dutch, when you want to negate a specific descriptive word (an adjective), you place niet directly in front of it. This clearly links the negation to the word, showing that the car is specifically "not cheap".
The word goedkoop looks like a combination of two words. Is it?
Yes! It is made of goed (good) and koop (buy or purchase). So a "good buy" is the Dutch way of saying cheap. Its direct opposite, as seen in the second half of this sentence, is duur (expensive).
Can I say maar de auto is duur instead of just maar duur?
Absolutely. Just like in English, you can leave out the repeated words if they are obvious from the first part of the sentence. De auto is niet goedkoop, maar duur is just a shorter, more natural way of saying De auto is niet goedkoop, maar hij is duur.
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