Word
De vergrote foto heeft een lelijke achtergrond.
Meaning
The enlarged photo has an ugly background.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De vergrote foto heeft een lelijke achtergrond.
een
a/an
hebben
to have
de foto
the photo
lelijk
ugly
Questions & Answers about De vergrote foto heeft een lelijke achtergrond.
Why is it spelled vergrote with one 'o' when the past participle of vergroten is vergroot with two?
As an adjective describing the de-word foto, the past participle vergroot gets an -e ending. Adding this -e splits the syllables into ver-gro-te. Because the gro syllable is now open (ends in a vowel), Dutch spelling rules dictate we drop one o to keep the same long vowel sound.
Wait, wouldn't the past tense of vergroten be spelled vergrootte with a double 'o' and double 't'? Why does the adjective lose both?
Verbs and adjectives follow different spelling rules in Dutch. Verb spelling prioritizes keeping the stem intact (hence hij vergrootte for 'he enlarged'). Adjectives, however, strictly follow syllable-based sound rules. The past participle is vergroot. When making it an adjective, we just add -e. The open syllable rule removes the extra o, and we never double a consonant just to preserve the verb stem in an adjective, leaving us with vergrote.
Why does lelijke get an -e ending here? Doesn't the article een normally prevent that?