Breakdown of Plotseling hoorde ik het rare geluid nog eens.
ik
I
horen
to hear
nog
still, yet / more, another (with a quantity)
eens
once, sometime (also softens commands)
raar
weird / strange
het geluid
the sound / the noise
plotseling
suddenly
Questions & Answers about Plotseling hoorde ik het rare geluid nog eens.
Why is the verb before the subject (hoorde ik)?
Because the sentence starts with the adverb Plotseling (Suddenly). In Dutch, whenever you start a sentence with anything other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places. This is called inversion.
This lesson is about irregular verbs. Is hoorde irregular?
No, it's actually a regular past tense verb! While you are learning strong, irregular verbs like zag or deed, it's important to remember the regular ones too. The stem of horen (to hear) is hoor. Because 'r' is not in the soft ketchup ('t kofschip) rule, we add -de to form the past tense.
Why does raar (weird) become rare here?
Two things happen here. First, geluid is a het-word. Because it has the specific article het in front of it, the adjective gets an -e ending. Second, a spelling rule applies: to keep the 'a' sound long when we add the extra vowel, we drop one 'a' and write rare instead of 'raare'.
Could I use weer instead of nog eens?
Yes, absolutely! Weer also means 'again'. Nog eens literally translates to 'yet once' and is a very natural, common way for Dutch speakers to say 'once more' or 'again'.
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