Breakdown of Het kind speelt buiten met een balletje.
een
a/an
het kind
the child
met
with
spelen
to play
buiten
outside
de bal
the ball
Questions & Answers about Het kind speelt buiten met een balletje.
Why is the diminutive of bal spelled as balletje instead of just adding -je or -tje?
The noun bal has a short vowel (a) followed by a single consonant (l). To keep the vowel sounding short when we add the diminutive ending, we have to double the consonant. Furthermore, words ending in -l, -m, -n, -ng, or -r after a short vowel take the -etje suffix. So, bal becomes balletje.
Why does buiten come before met een balletje? Can I say "Het kind speelt met een balletje buiten"?
In Dutch, adverbs of place like buiten (outside) generally come before prepositional phrases like met een balletje (with a little ball). While English often puts the location at the very end, Dutch prefers to place Time, Manner, and Place earlier in the sentence.
Since diminutives are always het words, would "little child" also use het?
Yes! The diminutive is het kindje. All diminutives in Dutch take the definite article het, even if the original root noun was a de word. In this specific sentence, both the regular noun (het kind) and its diminutive (het kindje) happen to use het anyway.
Why does speelt have two 'e's, but its dictionary form spelen only has one?
This is due to Dutch spelling rules for long vowels. In speelt (plays), the syllable ends in a consonant, so we need two 'e's to keep the long vowel sound. In the infinitive spelen, the first syllable ends with the vowel (spe-len). An 'e' at the end of a syllable is automatically long, so we drop the extra one.
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