Breakdown of De hoge huur betekende dat het huis duur was.
zijn
to be
het huis
the house
duur
expensive
hoog
high / tall
Questions & Answers about De hoge huur betekende dat het huis duur was.
Why does the verb betekenen become betekende in the past tense here?
To form the simple past, we first find the stem by removing -en from betekenen, which leaves beteken. Because the stem ends in -n, a voiced consonant (it is not in the unvoiced consonant memory trick 't kofschip), we add -de for the singular subject de hoge huur.
Why is the verb was at the very end of the sentence?
The word dat (that) introduces a subordinate clause (a sub-sentence). In Dutch, a subordinate clause pushes its conjugated verb (in this case, was) to the very end.
Why is the adjective hoge spelled with one o and an -e at the end, instead of just hoog?
Huur (rent) is a de word, so the adjective in front of it gets an -e ending. When we add the -e, the word breaks into syllables as ho-ge. Since the first syllable is now "open" (it ends in a vowel), a single o makes a long sound. We drop the extra o from hoog because Dutch spelling rules avoid double vowels in open syllables.
Why doesn't duur get an -e ending like hoge does?