Breakdown of Haar nieuwe voornemen is heel ambitieus.
zijn
to be
heel
very
haar
her
nieuw
new
ambitieus
ambitious
het voornemen
the resolution / the intention (personal plan)
Questions & Answers about Haar nieuwe voornemen is heel ambitieus.
The current lesson is about infinitive clauses. How would we add one to this sentence to explain what her resolution actually is?
You would use an om ... te clause right after the noun voornemen. For example: Haar nieuwe voornemen om vaker te sporten is heel ambitieus. (Her new resolution to exercise more often is very ambitious.) Nouns that express plans, intentions, or goals naturally pair with these subject-matching infinitive clauses.
Why is it nieuwe with an -e? Doesn't the adjective drop the -e for het words like voornemen?
You only drop the -e for a het word if it follows an indefinite word like een, geen, or has no article at all (e.g., een nieuw voornemen). Because this sentence uses the definite possessive pronoun haar, the adjective takes the standard -e ending: haar nieuwe voornemen.
The noun voornemen looks exactly like a verb. How does that work?
It is a nominalized verb, meaning an infinitive verb acting as a noun. The reflexive verb zich voornemen means 'to intend' or 'to resolve'. When an infinitive is used as a noun in Dutch, it always becomes a het word, giving us het voornemen (the resolution or intention).
The ending of ambitieus looks a bit French. Is there a rule for this spelling?
Yes! Dutch adjectives that share Latin or French roots with English words ending in '-ous' typically get the -eus suffix. You will see this exact same pattern in common words like serieus (serious) and nerveus (nervous).
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