Breakdown of Het geredde document had een gecomprimeerde bijlage.
een
a/an
hebben
to have
het
it
het document
the document
redden
to save (rescue)
de bijlage
the attachment
comprimeren
to compress
Questions & Answers about Het geredde document had een gecomprimeerde bijlage.
Why is geredde spelled with a double 'd' here?
The verb is redden (to save). Its standard past participle is gered. When we use it as an adjective before a noun, it gets an -e ending. To keep the second e in gered sounding short when adding another vowel, we must double the final consonant, resulting in geredde.
Document is a het-word. Why does geredde get an -e ending? I thought adjectives before het-words sometimes drop the -e.
Adjectives before het-words only drop the -e when they are indefinite (such as after een, geen, or no article at all). Because this sentence uses the definite article het (the), the adjective gets the standard -e ending. If it were "a saved document," it would be een gered document.
How do we get the form gecomprimeerde from the verb comprimeren?
First, find the past participle. The stem of comprimeren ends in r, which is not in 't kofschip (the memory aid for voiceless consonants). Therefore, it gets a -d, making the participle gecomprimeerd. Because it describes bijlage (a de-word) and follows een, we add an -e to make it gecomprimeerde.
Why doesn't gecomprimeerde drop an e, unlike words such as vergrote (from vergroot)?
It all comes down to syllable division. When you add an -e to vergroot, the syllable breaks before the consonant (ver-gro-te), leaving the o in an open syllable where a single vowel is automatically long. But for gecomprimeerd, the syllable breaks between the two consonants (ge-com-pri-meer-de). Because the syllable meer is still closed by the r, the double ee must stay to keep the vowel sound long.
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