Breakdown of Ik ben doodmoe van de reis en het is al pikdonker.
ik
I
zijn
to be
en
and
het
it
de reis
the journey / the trip
al
already
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
pikdonker
pitch-dark
doodmoe
dead tired
Questions & Answers about Ik ben doodmoe van de reis en het is al pikdonker.
Both doodmoe and pikdonker are in this sentence. Can I use prefixes like dood- and pik- with any adjective to make it stronger?
No, these elative prefixes are generally fixed to specific adjectives. Doodmoe literally means "dead tired", and pikdonker means "pitch dark" (from pik, meaning pitch or tar). You have to memorize which intensifier goes with which adjective, as you cannot say pikmoe or dooddonker.
Why do we use van in doodmoe van de reis instead of a causal word like door?
The adjective moe (and therefore its compound doodmoe) is naturally followed by the preposition van when you want to state the cause of the exhaustion. In Dutch, the fixed prepositional combination is almost always moe van (tired of/from).
Will elative adjectives like pikdonker ever get an -e added to the end?
Yes, but not in this sentence. Here they are used as predicate adjectives—meaning they follow the verb zijn (to be) and describe the subject—so they remain uninflected. If you put them directly before a noun, they behave like normal adjectives and take an -e, such as in een pikdonkere nacht (a pitch-dark night).
Why doesn't the word order invert after en in the second part of the sentence?
The conjunction en (and) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it joins two independent clauses without affecting the word order of either. The second clause simply starts normally with its own subject and verb: het is al pikdonker.
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