Breakdown of Hoe goedkoper het aandeel is, hoe winstgevender het bedrijf lijkt.
zijn
to be
goedkoop
cheap
hoe
how
het bedrijf
the company
lijken
to seem
het aandeel
the share
winstgevend
profitable
Questions & Answers about Hoe goedkoper het aandeel is, hoe winstgevender het bedrijf lijkt.
Why are the verbs is and lijkt at the very end of their clauses?
In a hoe ..., hoe ... (the ..., the ...) sentence, the first part is always a subordinate clause, meaning the verb goes at the end. The second part can either be a subordinate clause (like here, with lijkt at the end) or use inverted main clause word order (verb before subject). Putting both verbs at the end is very common and natural!
Can I translate 'the... the...' literally and say de goedkoper..., de winstgevender...?
No, you cannot use de for this in Dutch. To say 'the [more]..., the [more]...', you must always use hoe ..., hoe ... with the comparative form of the adjectives. Another common and slightly more formal option is hoe ..., des te ....
How is the long word winstgevender built?
It is the comparative form of winstgevend (profitable). That adjective is made from winst (profit) and gevend (giving, which is the present participle of geven). So a profitable company is literally a 'profit-giving' company!
Why does goedkoop lose an o when it becomes goedkoper?
This is a classic Dutch spelling rule that is always good to review. When you add the -er ending, the syllables break as goed-ko-per. Because the ko syllable now ends in a vowel (an 'open syllable'), a single o is enough to make the long 'o' sound.
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