Breakdown of De kunstenares maakte een prachtig meesterwerk.
een
a/an
maken
to make
prachtig
gorgeous
het meesterwerk
the masterpiece
de kunstenares
the female artist
Questions & Answers about De kunstenares maakte een prachtig meesterwerk.
How is the feminine noun kunstenares formed?
It comes from the generic noun kunstenaar (artist). To make it feminine, we add the suffix -es. This is a very common way to create female forms of professions in Dutch, especially those ending in -aar or -er (like leraar becoming lerares).
Why does prachtig not have an -e at the end here?
Because it comes before meesterwerk, which is a neuter (het) word. When a neuter noun is preceded by een (a/an), the adjective before it doesn't get the standard -e ending. If it were a de word, it would have to be een prachtige.
How can I tell if meesterwerk is a de or het word?
Meesterwerk is a compound noun made of meester (master) and werk (work). In Dutch, the gender of a compound noun is always determined by its final part. Since werk is a neuter word (het werk), the compound meesterwerk is also a het word.
Why is the past tense maakte and not maakde?
This follows the 't kofschip rule for regular verbs in the past tense. The stem of maken is maak. Because the stem ends in k (which is one of the hard consonants in 't kofschip), we add -te instead of -de.
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