Breakdown of Er zijn veel wetenschappelijke congressen en symposia in deze stad.
zijn
to be
en
and
veel
much / many / a lot of
in
in
de stad
the city
deze
this / these
er
there (existential)
wetenschappelijk
scientific
het congres
the conference
het symposium
the symposium
Questions & Answers about Er zijn veel wetenschappelijke congressen en symposia in deze stad.
Why is the plural of symposium written as symposia here?
Symposium is a classical loanword from Latin. In Dutch, many words ending in -um take an -a in the plural, just like museum becomes musea and centrum becomes centra. While you can often use the regular -s plural (symposiums), symposia is very common, especially in formal or academic contexts.
The singular word is congres. Why are there two s's in the plural congressen?
This is due to the Dutch spelling rules for keeping vowels short. If it were spelled congresen, the second e would sound long. Doubling the s keeps that e sounding short.
Why does the adjective wetenschappelijk get an -e at the end?
Adjectives modifying a plural noun (here, both congressen and symposia) almost always get an -e ending. It doesn't matter if the singular nouns are de or het words; in the plural, they all take the -e.
Why do we use deze stad instead of dit stad?
Because stad is a de-word (de stad). For de-words, we use deze (this) and die (that). If it were a het-word, we would use dit and dat.
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