Word
Het verlaten kasteel ziet er spookachtig uit.
Meaning
The abandoned castle looks spooky.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het verlaten kasteel ziet er spookachtig uit.
het kasteel
the castle
eruitzien
to look (like)
verlaten
to leave / to abandon (a place or person)
spookachtig
spooky / ghostly
Questions & Answers about Het verlaten kasteel ziet er spookachtig uit.
How does the suffix -achtig work in spookachtig?
The suffix -achtig is added to nouns or adjectives to express similarity or approximation, much like the English suffixes -like or -ish. Here, it combines with the noun spook (ghost) to create spookachtig, which literally translates to ghost-like and is the standard way to say spooky.
Why are ziet, er, and uit separated in this sentence?
They form the separable verb eruitzien, which means to look or to appear. In a main clause, the conjugated verb (ziet) takes the second position, er follows soon after, and the prefix uit goes to the very end of the clause. The descriptive adjective (spookachtig) sits neatly between er and uit.
Why doesn't the adjective verlaten get an -e at the end after the definite article Het?
While adjectives after definite articles usually get an -e ending (such as het oude kasteel), verlaten is an exception. It is a past participle acting as an adjective, and it already ends in -en. In Dutch, adjectives ending in -en never get an extra -e because it would be awkward to pronounce.