Breakdown of Ik houd van de verhoogde scherpte in dit portret.
ik
I
in
in
houden van
to love / to like
dit
this (neuter)
Questions & Answers about Ik houd van de verhoogde scherpte in dit portret.
Why does verhoogde keep its double "o", while a similar inflected past participle like vergrote drops one?
It comes down to where the syllables break. The past participle of verhogen is verhoogd. When we add an -e to make it an adjective, the syllables divide as ver-hoog-de. Because the syllable hoog ends in a consonant (a "closed" syllable), it must keep the double "o" to maintain the long vowel sound. In contrast, vergrote (from vergroten) divides as ver-gro-te, leaving the "o" at the end of an "open" syllable, where a single vowel is automatically pronounced long.
As a quick refresher, why does the base past participle verhoogd end in a "d" rather than a "t"?
This follows the 't kofschip rule. If you take the infinitive verhogen and remove the -en, the stem ends in "g". Because the letter "g" is not in the phrase 't kofschip (or soft ketchup), the past participle gets a -d rather than a -t.
Is there a rule that tells me scherpte is a de-word?
Yes! Scherpte is formed by adding the suffix -te to the adjective scherp (sharp) to create an abstract noun (sharpness). In Dutch, all abstract nouns created with the -te suffix are de-words.