Breakdown of De wol is mooi, dus ik draag een wollen trui.
ik
I
zijn
to be
een
a/an
mooi
beautiful
de trui
the sweater
dragen
to wear
dus
so, therefore
de wol
the wool
wollen
woolen
Questions & Answers about De wol is mooi, dus ik draag een wollen trui.
Why is it wollen instead of just adding an -e to wol?
Wollen is a material adjective, meaning it describes what the sweater is made of. In Dutch, most material adjectives are created by adding -en to the noun (from wol to wollen).
Since trui is a de-word, shouldn't there be an extra -e at the end of wollen, like in een mooie trui?
No, material adjectives ending in -en are an exception to the normal adjective rules. Even though you usually add an -e to the adjective for a de-word after een, fixed material adjectives like wollen, houten, or glazen never get that extra -e.
Why does wollen have a double 'l' when wol only has one?
This follows the Dutch spelling rules to keep the short vowel sound. Because wol has a short 'o', we must double the consonant 'l' when adding the -en ending. If it were spelled with one 'l', the 'o' would be pronounced as a long vowel.
Why is the word order ik draag after dus? Doesn't the verb usually swap places?
Dus (so) acts as a coordinating conjunction here, just like en (and) or maar (but). It simply glues two normal sentences together without changing their word order. Therefore, the second part keeps the standard subject-verb order: ik draag.
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