Word
De sommelier walst het glaasje voorzichtig.
Meaning
The sommelier swirls the small glass carefully.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De sommelier walst het glaasje voorzichtig.
het
it
voorzichtig
carefully
het glas
glass
de sommelier
the sommelier
Questions & Answers about De sommelier walst het glaasje voorzichtig.
Why does the diminutive glaasje have a double 'a' when the base word glas only has one?
This is an irregular diminutive with a short-to-long vowel shift. The base noun is glas (short 'a'). Usually, diminutives keep the same vowel sound, but a small group of older Dutch nouns lengthen their vowel in both the plural (glazen) and the diminutive. To keep that long 'a' sound before the consonants -sj, we have to write it as a double vowel: glaasje.
Why is the suffix -je used here instead of -etje, since the original word glas has a short vowel?
Normally, a short word ending in a short vowel and a single consonant would take -etje (for example, bril becomes brilletje). However, because the vowel in glas irregularly shifts to the long sound glaas-, the phonetic rules change. Since the stem now ends in a long vowel followed by an s, it simply takes the standard -je suffix.
The verb walst usually means 'waltzes' or 'rolls'. How does it translate to 'swirls' in this sentence?
You are right that walsen is the verb for 'to waltz' (the dance) or 'to flatten/roll' (like a steamroller). However, in the specific context of wine tasting, walsen is the standard Dutch terminology for swirling the wine in a glass to aerate it and release its aromas. It paints a nice picture of the liquid waltzing around the glass!
Just to check my memory: is it because the base word is ?