Questions & Answers about Het zand was al kurkdroog, want het regende niet.
What is the literal meaning of kurkdroog, and how is it formed?
Literally, it translates to "cork-dry". It is an elative compound, which means it combines a noun (kurk) and an adjective (droog) to express an extreme degree of that adjective. In English, you use "bone-dry", but Dutch uses the dryness of a cork for the same comparison.
Could I just use heel droog instead of kurkdroog?
Yes, you could, but kurkdroog is much more expressive. Elative compounds like this are very common in Dutch to add color and emphasis to your speech, showing a higher level of fluency than just adding heel (very) to everything.
Why doesn't the word want push the verb regende to the end of the sentence?
Want is a coordinating conjunction, which means it links two independent clauses without changing the word order. If you used the synonym omdat (a subordinating conjunction), the verb would move to the end: ...omdat het niet regende.
Why use the simple past regende instead of the present perfect heeft geregend?
The simple past (regende) is used here because it describes an ongoing background situation in the past (the lack of rain over a period of time). If you used heeft niet geregend, it would sound more like a single, completed event rather than an ongoing state that caused the sand to be dry.