Breakdown of Hij heeft het servies precies nagebouwd.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
precies
exactly
nabouwen
to recreate / to reproduce
het servies
the tableware
Questions & Answers about Hij heeft het servies precies nagebouwd.
Why is the ge placed in the middle of nagebouwd?
The infinitive is nabouwen, which is a separable verb meaning "to copy by building" or "to recreate". When forming the past participle of a separable verb, the ge- is inserted between the separable prefix (na-) and the main verb (bouwen), creating nagebouwd.
Is servies a false friend for the English word "service"?
Partially! Het servies specifically refers to dishes, tableware, or crockery (think of a "tea service" in English). If you want to talk about customer service or a helpful act, you would use de service (an English loanword) or de dienst.
Why is nagebouwd placed at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence is in the present perfect tense. In Dutch main clauses, the conjugated auxiliary verb (here, heeft) takes the second position, but the past participle (nagebouwd) is always sent all the way to the end of the sentence.
Since this lesson is about diminutives with double vowels, how do we form the diminutive of servies?
It simply becomes het serviesje. You only double the vowel for nouns that actually end in a single long open vowel (like auto becoming autootje). Because servies ends in a consonant, it follows the standard rule by just adding -je.
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