Breakdown of Zijn die gordijnen lang genoeg voor het hoge raam?
zijn
to be
het raam
the window
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
lang
long
voor
for (on behalf of)
hoog
high / tall
genoeg
enough
het gordijn
the curtain
Questions & Answers about Zijn die gordijnen lang genoeg voor het hoge raam?
Why is it lang genoeg instead of genoeg lang?
In Dutch, just like in English, when genoeg modifies an adjective like lang, it must be placed directly after that adjective. You cannot say genoeg lang.
Why is there an -e on hoge in het hoge raam but not on lang?
Lang is used here as a predicative adjective (it describes the subject via the verb zijn), so it never gets an -e ending. Hoge, however, is placed directly before the noun it modifies (raam), making it an attributive adjective. Because it follows the definite article het, it gets the standard -e ending.
The word for high is hoog, so why is it spelled hoge with only one 'o'?
When you add the -e ending to hoog, the word is broken into syllables as ho-ge. According to Dutch spelling rules, a single vowel at the end of an open syllable automatically gets a long sound. The second 'o' is dropped because it is no longer needed to keep the vowel long.
Since curtain is a het-word (het gordijn), shouldn't we say dat gordijnen instead of die gordijnen?
No. While the singular is indeed het gordijn and dat gordijn, all plural nouns in Dutch act like de-words. Because gordijnen is plural, you must use die for 'those' and deze for 'these', never dat or dit.
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