Breakdown of Ze draagt een korte, zwarte jurk.
zij
she
een
a/an
dragen
to wear
de jurk
the dress
kort
short
zwart
black
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze draagt een korte, zwarte jurk.
Why do the adjectives kort (short) and zwart (black) both end in -e here?
In Dutch, adjectives placed directly before a noun usually get an -e added to the end. Because jurk (dress) is a de-word (de jurk), any adjective before it gets this -e ending, even when we use the word een (a).
What if she was wearing a het-word, like het shirt?
This is where the rule gets tricky! If you have een (a) in front of a het-word, you do not add the -e to the adjective. So it would be een kort, zwart shirt. We only add the -e after een if the noun is a de-word, like jurk.
Why does the verb draagt have a double aa, but its dictionary form dragen only has one a?
This happens because of Dutch spelling rules for keeping a vowel sound 'long'. In dra-gen, the a is at the end of a syllable, so it is naturally long. When we conjugate it to draagt, the syllable is closed by consonants. To keep that exact same long 'a' sound, we have to write it with a double aa.
Could I use Zij instead of Ze at the beginning of this sentence?
Yes! Zij and Ze both mean 'she'. Zij is the emphasized form, while ze is the unstressed form. You would use Zij if you wanted to stress that she is wearing the dress (and not someone else). Since there is no special emphasis needed here, the unstressed ze is very natural.
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