Breakdown of Zijn fantasieën zijn gevaarlijk.
zijn
to be
gevaarlijk
dangerous
de fantasie
the fantasy / the imagination
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Questions & Answers about Zijn fantasieën zijn gevaarlijk.
Why is the plural fantasieën instead of just fantasien or fantasiën?
The singular noun is fantasie. In Dutch, words ending in -ie form their plural based on word stress. Because the stress falls on the final syllable of fantasie, you must add -ën to the end. If the stress were on an earlier syllable, like in porie, you would simply add an -n and put the trema on the existing e to make poriën.
What does the trema (the two dots) actually do for the pronunciation of fantasieën?
The trema indicates exactly where a new syllable begins so that you do not blend all the vowels together into one weird sound. It splits the end of the word into two clear syllables: the ie and the ën. This tells you to pronounce it distinctly as 'fan-ta-SEE-en'.
The word zijn appears twice in this sentence. Are they doing the same job?
They look identical but serve completely different grammatical functions. The first Zijn is the possessive pronoun meaning 'his'. The second zijn is the plural verb meaning 'are' (from the infinitive verb zijn, meaning 'to be').
Why doesn't the adjective gevaarlijk get an -e at the end, given that the subject fantasieën is plural?
Adjectives only take the -e ending when they are placed directly in front of the noun they modify (attributive adjectives). Because gevaarlijk comes after the verb to describe the subject (as a predicate adjective), it stays in its base form, regardless of the noun being plural.