Questions & Answers about De bruine hond slaapt buiten.
Why is it bruine instead of just bruin?
In Dutch, when an adjective comes directly before a noun, we usually add an -e to the end of it. Because hond is a de word (we say de hond), the adjective bruin (brown) becomes bruine.
How do I know whether hond is a de or het word?
You generally have to memorize the article for each noun, but here is a handy trick: almost all animals in Dutch are de words! So de hond (the dog), de kat (the cat), and de vogel (the bird) all use de.
Why is it spelled slaapt with two 'a's when the full verb is slapen with only one 'a'?
This is because of Dutch spelling rules for long vowel sounds. In slapen, the first 'a' is at the end of a syllable (sla-pen), which automatically makes it a long sound. When we make the form for 'it' (the dog), the word becomes a single closed syllable. To keep that same long 'ah' sound before the consonants 'pt', we have to double the vowel to aa: slaapt.
Both bruine and buiten have the vowel combination 'ui'. How is that pronounced?
The Dutch ui is a unique sound that doesn't exist in English. Don't pronounce it like 'oo-ee'! It sounds a bit like the English 'ow' (as in 'cow' or 'out'), but spoken with your lips tightly rounded and pushed forward.
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