Breakdown of Hij managede het project zonder de documenten te deleten.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
het project
the project
het
it
het document
the document
Questions & Answers about Hij managede het project zonder de documenten te deleten.
Why is the past tense of managen spelled as managede?
For English loanwords, Dutch uses the English spelling for the stem, which is manage. To decide between adding -de or -te for the past tense, you must look at the final sound of the stem, not the spelling. The final sound of "manage" is a voiced /dʒ/ (a "j" sound). Because this sound is voiced and not in 't kofschip, we add the ending -de, resulting in managede.
How is a word like managede pronounced with that string of vowels at the end?
It sounds very similar to the English word "managed", but with a Dutch schwa (a short "uh" sound) at the very end. Because the stem is manage, the first 'e' in -ede remains silent, just like it does in English. You pronounce it roughly as "ma-nijdzh-duh".
Since the lesson is about loanword past tenses, how would you form the past tense of deleten?
You start with the English stem delete. The final sound of this stem is a voiceless /t/, which is in 't kofschip. Therefore, you add the unvoiced ending -te. This creates the rather funny-looking Dutch past tense deletete (for example, hij deletete).
Why does the Dutch sentence use te deleten instead of a direct translation for the gerund "deleting"?