Word
De klemtoon op die klinker is lastig te horen.
Meaning
The stress on that vowel is tricky to hear.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De klemtoon op die klinker is lastig te horen.
zijn
to be
op
on
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
horen
to hear
Questions & Answers about De klemtoon op die klinker is lastig te horen.
Why is there a te before horen in the phrase lastig te horen?
This is the exact structure you're practicing in this lesson! When expressing how easy, hard, or tricky it is to do something to a subject, Dutch uses an evaluative adjective (like lastig, moeilijk, or makkelijk) + te + the infinitive verb. Here, it describes the difficulty of hearing the stress.
Could I say moeilijk te horen instead of lastig te horen?
Absolutely. Lastig (tricky, troublesome) and moeilijk (difficult, hard) are largely interchangeable in this context. Lastig just adds a slight nuance that the vowel stress is deceptive or annoying to catch, whereas moeilijk is a more neutral way to say it is hard to hear.
The word klemtoon translates to "stress". What is the literal meaning of this compound word?
It combines klem (clamp, grip, or emphasis) with toon (tone). So it literally translates to "clamp-tone" or "emphasis-tone"—referring to the specific syllable you put the pressure or phonetic stress on.
If klinker means "vowel", what is the Dutch word for "consonant"?