Questions & Answers about Er zijn zilveren en gouden ringen.
Why do zilver and goud get an -en ending here?
In Dutch, adjectives that describe what something is made of (material adjectives) almost always get a fixed -en ending. So the noun zilver becomes the adjective zilveren, and goud becomes gouden.
Do zilveren and gouden ever drop that -en ending, like normal adjectives sometimes do?
No, and that is what makes material adjectives special! Unlike normal adjectives, they never drop their ending. They always keep the -en suffix, whether they are used with a de word, a het word, singular, or plural.
Both the adjectives (zilveren, gouden) and the noun (ringen) end in -en. Is that just a coincidence?
Yes! For the adjectives, the -en shows they are materials. For the noun, the -en just makes it plural. Ringen is simply the plural form of the noun ring.
Why does this sentence start with Er zijn instead of Daar zijn for "There are"?