Breakdown of Het strand is veel verder dan het centrum.
zijn
to be
veel
much / many / a lot of
het strand
the beach
ver
far
het centrum
the center
dan
than
Questions & Answers about Het strand is veel verder dan het centrum.
Why is the comparative form verder instead of just adding -er to make 'verer'?
The base word for 'far' is ver. Normally, Dutch adds -er to make a comparative (like bigger or faster). However, when an adjective ends in -r, Dutch adds -der instead to make it easier to pronounce. So ver becomes verder.
Can I use veel before any comparative word like this?
Yes! Just like in English where you say 'much farther' or 'a lot bigger', you can put veel (which usually means much or a lot) in front of a Dutch comparative to emphasize it.
We use dan for 'than' here. Do we ever use als for comparisons?
You use dan when two things are different, like one being farther than the other. You only use als when two things are exactly the same, which goes with the basic adjective, like zo ver als (as far as). Since the beach is farther, we need dan.
I see both strand and centrum use het. Is there a rule for this?
They just happen to both be neuter words. In Dutch, nouns get either de or het for 'the'. Both strand (beach) and centrum (center) are het words, so you just have to memorize them as het strand and het centrum.
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