Breakdown of De bassist en de zangeres beginnen een nieuwe band.
een
a/an
en
and
beginnen
to begin
nieuw
new
Questions & Answers about De bassist en de zangeres beginnen een nieuwe band.
How do we know the singer is female?
The word zangeres uses the suffix -es, which is commonly added to professions to specify a female person. The male or gender-neutral equivalent is zanger.
Why does nieuwe get an -e at the end even though it comes after een?
Because band is a de-word. When an adjective comes before a noun, it almost always gets an -e. The only time the -e is dropped is when the adjective comes before a het-word that is preceded by een (or no article at all).
Can you use beginnen directly with an object like een nieuwe band?
Yes! While you often see beginnen used with met (meaning 'to start with') or another verb (like beginnen te zingen), you can also use it directly with a noun when starting a project, a business, or in this case, a musical group.
Is band an English loanword here?
Yes! In the context of a musical group, band is borrowed from English and pronounced very similarly to the English word. It is treated as a de-word. Keep in mind that Dutch also has a native word band (meaning 'tire' or 'ribbon'), which uses standard Dutch pronunciation.