Breakdown of De timmerlieden bouwen samen een houten huis.
een
a/an
het huis
the house
samen
together
bouwen
to build
houten
wooden
de timmerman
the carpenter
Questions & Answers about De timmerlieden bouwen samen een houten huis.
What is the singular form of timmerlieden?
The singular is timmerman (carpenter). As you are learning in this lesson, many traditional professions ending in -man change their suffix to -lieden in the plural, rather than just adding standard plural endings.
Could I say timmerlui instead of timmerlieden in this sentence?
Yes, you absolutely can. Timmerlieden and timmerlui mean the exact same thing. The difference is just tone: -lieden sounds slightly more formal or written, while -lui is more casual and very common in everyday spoken Dutch.
Why does houten end in -en if huis is a het-word preceded by een?
Normally, a het word preceded by the indefinite article een gets an adjective with no ending (like een groot huis). However, houten is an adjective of material (meaning wooden, from the noun hout). In Dutch, adjectives describing what something is made of almost always end in -en and never change to match the noun's gender.
Why is samen placed directly after the verb bouwen?
In a standard main clause, the conjugated verb takes the second position. Adverbs of manner like samen (together) typically come right after the verb and before the direct object (een houten huis).
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