Questions & Answers about De lange wereldreis wordt betaald met ons spaargeld.
Why does the Dutch sentence use wordt instead of is for "is being paid"?
In Dutch, the passive voice for an ongoing action uses the verb worden (to become). So wordt betaald means the action of paying is happening now ("is being paid"). If you used is betaald, it would mean the action is already completely finished ("has been paid" or "is already paid").
Why is it ons spaargeld and not onze spaargeld?
Compound words always take the gender of their last part. Spaargeld ends in geld, which is a het word (het geld). For het words, the Dutch word for "our" is always ons. You only use onze with de words or plural nouns.
Why does the past participle betaald end in a -d rather than a -t?
To know whether a regular past participle ends in -d or -t, you check the last letter of the verb stem. The stem of betalen is betaal. Because the letter l is not in the tricky consonant group 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -d.
Why does lang get an -e added to it to make lange?