Breakdown of Was de verkoopster heel beleefd?
zijn
to be
heel
very
beleefd
polite
de verkoopster
the female shop assistant
Questions & Answers about Was de verkoopster heel beleefd?
How do we form the feminine noun verkoopster from the male form verkoper?
You replace the male suffix -er with the feminine suffix -ster. Notice the spelling change: in verkoper, the o is in an open syllable, so it sounds long. When we add -ster, the syllable closes (ver-koop-ster), so we must double the o to keep that same long vowel sound.
What is the plural of verkoopster?
Nouns ending in the feminine suffix -ster always take an -s to form the plural. Therefore, the plural for saleswomen is verkoopsters.
Heel usually means whole. Can I use erg here instead to mean very?
Yes, erg beleefd is perfectly fine and means the exact same thing. When heel is placed immediately before an adjective, it acts as an adverb meaning very. Because it is an adverb here, it never gets an -e ending, even though verkoopster is a feminine noun.
Why does the adjective beleefd look like a past participle?
Historically, it is one! It comes from the past participle of the verb beleven (to experience). The original idea was that an experienced person knew how to behave well. Today, it functions entirely as a standard adjective meaning polite.