Breakdown of De schrijver had het concept voorbereid, maar de redacteur heeft het probleem uitvergroot.
maar
but
hebben
to have
het probleem
the problem
voorbereiden
to prepare
de schrijver
the writer
de redacteur
the editor
het concept
the draft
uitvergroten
to magnify / to exaggerate (blow out of proportion)
Questions & Answers about De schrijver had het concept voorbereid, maar de redacteur heeft het probleem uitvergroot.
Why is the past participle of voorbereiden just voorbereid instead of voorgebereid?
Normally, a separable verb gets a -ge- in the middle. However, the base verb here is bereiden, which starts with the inseparable prefix be-. Because be- is unstressed, Dutch drops the extra -ge- prefix. So, it simply becomes voorbereid.
Does the same rule apply to uitvergroot?
Exactly! The infinitive is uitvergroten, combining the separable prefix uit- and the inseparable verb vergroten. Since ver- is already an unstressed inseparable prefix, we skip the -ge- in the past participle. We say uitvergroot instead of uitgevergroot.
Why does the first part use had voorbereid but the second part uses heeft uitvergroot?
The sentence uses the past perfect (had voorbereid) for the action that happened first, and the present perfect (heeft uitvergroot) for the action that followed. This sequence shows that the draft was prepared before the editor started working on it.
I know concept as a general idea. Why is it translated as draft here?
In Dutch, het concept is very commonly used to mean a rough draft or first version of a text, like a document, essay, or email. While it can also mean a conceptual idea just like in English, the context of a writer and an editor makes draft the best fit here.
Why is the verb heeft in the normal second position after the comma? Shouldn't the word order change?
The word maar is a coordinating conjunction, which means it glues two main clauses together without affecting the word order. The second clause simply starts fresh with the subject (de redacteur) in position one and the verb (heeft) in position two.
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