Breakdown of Men vindt deze controversiële film nu helemaal betekenisloos.
nu
now
de film
the film
deze
this / these
helemaal
completely
vinden
to think / consider (hold an opinion)
men
one / people (general)
betekenisloos
meaningless
controversieel
controversial
Questions & Answers about Men vindt deze controversiële film nu helemaal betekenisloos.
Why does controversiële have those two dots (a trema) on the final e?
The base adjective is controversieel. Because film is a de-word preceded by deze, the adjective gets an -e ending. This puts the vowels i, e, and e right next to each other. Dutch uses the trema on the final ë to show that it starts a new syllable, preventing you from mispronouncing the letters together as one long vowel sound.
Is men exactly the same as using ze (they) or je (you) for general statements?
Men translates to 'one' or 'people' and serves the same grammatical purpose as a general ze or je. However, it is significantly more formal. You will often encounter men in written Dutch, news reports, or formal critiques, while ze and je are heavily preferred in daily conversation.
Why do the words nu helemaal betekenisloos come after the direct object deze controversiële film?
Because the direct object is specific (it is introduced by the demonstrative deze), it moves ahead of the time adverb nu. The word betekenisloos is an object complement, meaning it is an adjective describing the object's state. Object complements naturally fall at the very end of the sentence, and here it just takes its modifier helemaal along with it.
Could I use betekenisloze with an -e ending here instead?
No, because betekenisloos is not placed directly in front of a noun to modify it (as it would be in de betekenisloze film). Instead, it acts as a predicative adjective, describing the film's state via the verb vindt. In Dutch, predicative adjectives never get an -e ending.
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