Breakdown of Werkte jouw huisgenoot in de kantine?
werken
to work
in
in
jouw
your
de huisgenoot
the roommate
de kantine
the canteen, the cafeteria
Questions & Answers about Werkte jouw huisgenoot in de kantine?
Why does werken become werkte in the past tense, rather than werkde?
To form the regular past tense, we look at the verb stem. The stem of werken is werk. Because it ends in k—which is one of the voiceless consonants in the memory word 't kofschip (or soft ketchup)—we add -te instead of -de.
Why isn't the verb werkten here?
The verb must match the subject. Here, the subject is jouw huisgenoot (your roommate), which is singular, so we use werkte. If you were asking about multiple roommates (jouw huisgenoten), you would add an -n and use the plural form werkten.
Can I use je instead of jouw in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely! Je is the unstressed, everyday word for "your." You use jouw when you want to put a little extra emphasis on the word, like clarifying if it was your roommate as opposed to someone else's.
Is a huisgenoot exactly the same as the English word "roommate"?
Usually, yes. Huisgenoot literally means "house companion" and is used for someone you share a house or apartment with. If you actually sleep in the exact same bedroom with someone, the specific Dutch word for that is kamergenoot ("room companion").
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