Questions & Answers about Is de rivier hier diep?
Why does the Dutch sentence say hier diep instead of diep hier?
In Dutch, adverbs of place like hier (here) usually come before the adjective they give context to. English naturally puts "here" at the very end of the phrase, but Dutch brings it earlier in the sentence.
How would I change this sentence to ask if the river is deeper here?
You apply the standard comparative rule from this lesson by adding -er to the adjective diep. The sentence simply becomes: Is de rivier hier dieper?
If I change diep to dieper, do I need to drop a vowel to follow Dutch spelling rules?
No, you don't! You only drop a vowel in an open syllable if it's a double-letter vowel (like groot becoming groter). Because ie is a two-letter combination (a digraph), it never loses a letter. It just becomes dieper.
Why do we use is here? Don't we use liggen (to lie) for bodies of water and geography?
You use position verbs like liggen to talk about where a river is located (for example, De rivier ligt in het zuiden - The river is in the south). However, because you are just describing a quality of the river (being deep) rather than its location, you use the standard verb zijn (is).