Breakdown of Hij bewaarde een extra kopie.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
een
a/an
bewaren
to keep / preserve
extra
extra
Questions & Answers about Hij bewaarde een extra kopie.
Why use bewaarde here instead of hield, since both mean 'kept'?
Houden means 'to keep' in the sense of possession (not giving something away). Bewaren means 'to keep' in the sense of saving, storing, or preserving something for later use. Since he is putting aside a backup copy, bewaarde is the natural choice.
How do we know to use -de for the past tense of bewaren?
We look at the stem of the verb bewaren, which is bewaar. The last letter is r. Since r is a voiced consonant (it is not in the memory word 't kofschip), we add -de for the singular past tense, making it bewaarde.
Is kopie a de word or a het word, and what is its plural?
It is de kopie. The plural is kopieën. Because the stress falls on the final syllable of the word, you add -ën with a trema (the two dots) on the e to show that a new syllable starts there.
Since kopie is a de word and follows een, shouldn't the adjective extra get an -e at the end?