Breakdown of We negeerden het gehuil van de baby.
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de baby
the baby
negeren
to ignore
Questions & Answers about We negeerden het gehuil van de baby.
How does the word gehuil fit into this lesson's topic?
It is formed by taking the stem of the verb huilen (to cry) and adding the prefix ge-. This creates a noun that describes a continuous, ongoing, and often irritating action. In this sentence, it emphasizes the repetitive and probably annoying nature of the baby crying.
Is there a rule for whether these continuous action nouns take de or het?
Why does negeerden have a double e, while the infinitive negeren only has one?
This is due to Dutch spelling rules for keeping vowels long. In the infinitive negeren, the middle e is in an open syllable, so it sounds long. To find the stem, we drop the -en, leaving a closed syllable. We must double the vowel to negeer to keep the long sound. We then add the past tense plural ending -den to get negeerden.
Can I say de baby's gehuil instead of het gehuil van de baby?
Yes, both het gehuil van de baby and de baby's gehuil are grammatically correct. However, using the van construction to show possession is extremely common in Dutch and often sounds a bit more natural in everyday speech.