Breakdown of De gehandicapte zat in de rolstoel.
in
in
zitten
to sit
de rolstoel
the wheelchair
gehandicapt
disabled
Questions & Answers about De gehandicapte zat in de rolstoel.
Why does gehandicapte mean 'disabled person' when it looks like an adjective?
In Dutch, you can turn an adjective into a noun to talk about a person with that quality. You take the base adjective (gehandicapt) and add an -e at the end. Together with the article de, de gehandicapte means 'the disabled one' or 'the disabled person'.
Is a nominalized adjective referring to a person always a 'de' word?
Yes! When you turn an adjective into a noun to refer to a person (like de blinde or de zieke), it always takes the common gender article de.
How would I say 'the disabled people' if this sentence were plural?
When a nominalized adjective refers to people in the plural, you add an -n to the singular form. So de gehandicapte becomes de gehandicapten.
Why use zat here instead of the perfect tense?
Zat is the simple past tense of zitten (to sit). In Dutch, it is very common to use the simple past for verbs of position like zitten, staan, and liggen when setting the scene or describing an ongoing background situation.