Breakdown of Dat spotgoedkope restaurant had helaas geen splinternieuwe stoelen.
hebben
to have
geen
no / not any
de stoel
the chair
het restaurant
the restaurant
dat
that (het-words)
helaas
unfortunately
spotgoedkoop
dirt-cheap
splinternieuw
brand new
Questions & Answers about Dat spotgoedkope restaurant had helaas geen splinternieuwe stoelen.
What does the prefix spot- in spotgoedkope literally mean?
The noun spot means mockery or ridicule. So spotgoedkoop literally means 'mockery-cheap'—so cheap it is almost a joke. This is the standard Dutch elative prefix to translate the English concept of 'dirt-cheap'.
What is the origin of splinter- in splinternieuwe?
It literally translates to 'splinter'! It refers to something freshly carved in a woodworker's shop that still has splinters on it. It means exactly the same as the English phrase 'brand-new'.
Do elative compound adjectives always get an -e ending, like spotgoedkope and splinternieuwe do here?
No, they follow the exact same grammar rules as normal adjectives. Restaurant gets an -e here because it is a neuter (het) noun preceded by the demonstrative pronoun dat. Stoelen gets an -e because it is a plural noun. If you had an indefinite neuter noun, the adjective would lose the -e, for example: een spotgoedkoop restaurant.
Why is geen used here instead of niet?
You use geen because you are negating the indefinite noun phrase splinternieuwe stoelen. In Dutch, when you negate a noun that doesn't have a definite article (de or het) or a possessive pronoun in front of it, you use geen. It is the equivalent of saying the restaurant had no brand-new chairs.
Why is helaas placed before geen?
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