Word
Elk digitaal bestand heeft een bepaalde grootte.
Meaning
Every digital file has a certain size.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Elk digitaal bestand heeft een bepaalde grootte.
een
a/an
hebben
to have
het bestand
the file
elk
each, every
Questions & Answers about Elk digitaal bestand heeft een bepaalde grootte.
The current lesson is about spelling shifts. Why does bepaalde keep the double aa from the participle bepaald, while forms like vergrote drop a vowel?
It all comes down to syllables. In Dutch, words are split between consonants. The word bepaalde splits as be-paal-de. Because the second syllable ends in a consonant (l), it is a closed syllable. To keep the vowel sound long, the double aa must remain. In contrast, vergrote splits as ver-gro-te; the open gro syllable automatically sounds long, so the extra vowel is dropped.
Why does the adjective digitaal lack an -e ending here?
Adjectives do not get the -e ending when they come before a singular, neuter (het) noun accompanied by an indefinite word like een, geen, or elk. Since bestand is a neuter noun (het bestand) preceded by elk, digitaal remains uninflected.
Why do we use elk instead of elke?
This follows the exact same rule as the adjective before it. Because bestand is a singular het-word, we use the uninflected form elk. If we were talking about a de-word, like de map (the folder), we would say elke map.