Breakdown of Wie is de slimste speler van het team?
zijn
to be
wie
who
het team
the team
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
slim
smart
de speler
the player
Questions & Answers about Wie is de slimste speler van het team?
Why does slimste have an -e at the end?
The base word is slim (smart). To make it a superlative (smartest), we add -st to get slimst. Because it describes the noun speler and comes after the article de, it gets the standard -e ending that most adjectives take in this position, becoming slimste.
How do I know whether to use de or het before the superlative here?
The article always matches the noun being described. The noun is speler, which is a de word. Therefore, we use de to say de slimste speler. If the noun were a het word like kind (child), it would be het slimste kind.
Why do we use van here when the English translation says on the team?
Prepositions rarely translate word-for-word. While in English someone plays on a team, Dutch treats team membership as belonging, so you literally say a player of the team (van het team).
Why does the word team get the article het instead of de?
Team is a neuter word in Dutch, so it always takes het. Many nouns borrowed from English become het words, though it is always best to memorize the article whenever you learn a new noun!
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