Breakdown of Dit is een makkelijk verhaal.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
dit
this (neuter)
makkelijk
easy
het verhaal
the story
Questions & Answers about Dit is een makkelijk verhaal.
Why does makkelijk not have an -e at the end here?
Because verhaal (story) is a het word. The general rule is to add an -e to adjectives, but there is one big exception: when you have a singular het word preceded by een (a/an) or nothing at all, the adjective does not get an -e.
If I said "the easy story" instead of "an easy story", would makkelijk change?
Yes, it would become het makkelijke verhaal. You only drop the -e when the het word is indefinite (using een). As soon as you use the specific word het (the), the -e ending comes back!
Does this mean I can use adjectives to figure out if a noun is a de or het word?
Exactly! The word een is used for both de and het words, so it doesn't give you a clue. But if you see an adjective after een with no -e ending, you know for sure that the noun is a het word.
Why do we use Dit instead of Deze for "This"?
When you are introducing or pointing something out with "This is..." or "That is...", Dutch always uses the fixed phrases Dit is... and Dat is.... It doesn't matter if the noun later in the sentence is a de word or a het word.
How do you pronounce the ending of makkelijk?
The -lijk suffix is always pronounced like "luk". Even though it has the letters ij, it sounds like a short, relaxed "uh" sound (a schwa) in this specific ending.
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