Breakdown of De directeur bevestigde het faillissement van het filiaal.
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
bevestigen
to confirm
de directeur
the director (of a company or school)
het filiaal
the branch (of a business or store)
het faillissement
the bankruptcy
Questions & Answers about De directeur bevestigde het faillissement van het filiaal.
Since this lesson is about formal prepositions, could we replace van with a complex preposition like met betrekking tot here?
It wouldn't sound natural to directly replace van in this exact sentence. Van het filiaal simply indicates possession or association ("of the branch"). You use formal complex prepositions like met betrekking tot (with regard to) to link an action, statement, or policy to a broader topic. For example, you might say: De directeur deed een uitspraak met betrekking tot het filiaal (The director made a statement regarding the branch).
Faillissement is quite a mouthful to spell. Are there any rules to help remember its definite article?
It comes from French, which explains the tricky spelling with the double l and double s. A very reliable rule for B2 learners is that almost all nouns ending in the suffix -ment (like het moment, het abonnement, and het faillissement) are het words.
Why does bevestigde end in -de and not -te?
Bevestigen (to confirm) is a regular verb. To form the simple past, we take the stem bevestig. Because the final letter is g, which is not one of the voiceless consonants in the memory aid 't kofschip, the verb takes the voiced -de ending rather than -te.
Is there a difference between het filiaal and de tak since both can mean "the branch"?
Yes, het filiaal refers specifically to a physical retail or business location, like a local branch of a supermarket or bank. De tak is used for a literal tree branch, or metaphorically for a division within an abstract field or organization, such as een tak van de wetenschap (a branch of science).
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