Breakdown of Het water uit de rivier is veilig maar smaakloos.
zijn
to be
maar
but
het water
the water
uit
out of / from
veilig
safe
de rivier
the river
smaakloos
tasteless
Questions & Answers about Het water uit de rivier is veilig maar smaakloos.
How does the suffix -loos work to create the word smaakloos?
The Dutch suffix -loos works exactly like the English suffix "-less". It is added to a noun to create an adjective meaning "without [noun]". Here, combining the noun smaak (taste) with -loos gives us smaakloos (tasteless).
Why does the sentence use uit instead of van for "from the river"?
When talking about a physical substance being drawn or taken from a source, Dutch prefers uit (literally "out of"). The water is physically taken out of the river. If you used van (of/from), it would imply the river owns the water, which sounds unnatural here.
Why don't the adjectives veilig and smaakloos get an -e ending in this sentence?
Because they are predicate adjectives, meaning they come after the linking verb (is) rather than directly before a noun. In Dutch, adjectives only take an -e ending when they stand right in front of the noun they describe.
If I were to put smaakloos directly in front of a noun, how would its spelling change?
It would become smaakloze, for example: het smaakloze water. When you add the -e ending, the double oo drops to a single o to keep the syllable open (retaining the long vowel sound), and the s changes to a voiced z because it now sits between two vowels.
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