Breakdown of Die ontwerper heeft veel bewonderaars.
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
de ontwerper
the designer
de bewonderaar
the admirer
Questions & Answers about Die ontwerper heeft veel bewonderaars.
Why does the verb bewonderen (to admire) turn into bewonderaar and not bewonderer?
The stem of bewonderen is bewonder, which ends in an unstressed -er. If you added the standard -er suffix for people who do things (agent nouns), you would get bewonderer, which sounds clumsy. To make it easier to pronounce, Dutch uses the suffix -aar for verb stems ending in an unstressed -r, -l, or -n.
Does ontwerpen (to design) follow a special rule to become ontwerper?
No, ontwerpen uses the standard rule. Its stem is ontwerp. Since the stem does not end in an unstressed -r, -l, or -n, you simply add the standard agent suffix -er to get ontwerper (designer).
Why is the plural of bewonderaar formed with an -s (bewonderaars) rather than -en?
Words referring to people that end in unstressed suffixes like -aar, -er, or -erd almost always take an -s to make them plural. Because of this rule, bewonderaar becomes bewonderaars and ontwerper becomes ontwerpers.
Could I say vele bewonderaars instead of veel bewonderaars?
You could, but it changes the tone. Vele sounds much more formal, poetic, or dramatic. In everyday Dutch, the basic, uninflected form veel is standard and most common when used directly before a plural noun to simply mean "many".
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