Breakdown of De ondernemer gebruikt zijn eigen middelen.
zijn
his
gebruiken
to use
eigen
own
de ondernemer
the entrepreneur
het middel
the resource
Questions & Answers about De ondernemer gebruikt zijn eigen middelen.
Why is it eigen and not eigene, since middelen is a plural noun and adjectives usually get an -e ending there?
The word eigen (own) is a special adjective. It almost never takes an -e ending, regardless of whether the noun is a de word, a het word, or plural. You will always see it in this base form, such as zijn eigen middelen (his own resources) or mijn eigen bedrijf (my own company).
Could I just say zijn middelen instead of zijn eigen middelen?
Yes, but adding eigen adds emphasis, just like in English. Zijn middelen simply means "his resources," while zijn eigen middelen emphasizes that they are his own resources, which implies he is not using someone else's money or a bank loan.
I've seen the word middelen used to mean "medicines" or "remedies". How does it mean "resources" here?
The singular word het middel generally translates to "a means" (a way to achieve something) or "a remedy". In business and financial contexts, the plural middelen is widely used to refer to "resources" or "funds" (often as financiële middelen).
How would this sentence look if we were talking about multiple entrepreneurs?
It would be: De ondernemers gebruiken hun eigen middelen. Notice that the possessive pronoun changes to hun (their), but the emphatic adjective eigen stays exactly the same!
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