Breakdown of Het café is niet open, maar dicht.
zijn
to be
niet
not
maar
but
het café
the cafe
open
open
dicht
closed
Questions & Answers about Het café is niet open, maar dicht.
Why do we use niet instead of geen here?
Does dicht mean the same thing as gesloten?
Yes, both mean closed. Dicht is very common in everyday spoken Dutch for shops, doors, or windows being shut. Gesloten is a bit more formal, like the official closed sign you might see on a shop window.
Why does café have an accent mark on the e?
Dutch borrows this word directly from French. The accent tells you to pronounce the e as a long ay sound, rather than the short uh sound a single e usually makes at the end of a Dutch word.
Is it required to put a comma before maar?
Usually, yes. In Dutch, it is a standard rule to put a comma before the conjunction maar when it connects two contrasting ideas or phrases.
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