Breakdown of Die krantenkop over de burgemeester was een complete leugen.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
over
about
de leugen
the lie
de burgemeester
the mayor
compleet
complete / completely (entire, total)
de krantenkop
the headline
Questions & Answers about Die krantenkop over de burgemeester was een complete leugen.
Why is it complete leugen with an -e, instead of just compleet?
Because here, compleet is a regular adjective describing the noun leugen. Since leugen is a de-word, adjectives following een must take the -e ending. If you used it to modify another adjective instead—like 'a completely absurd lie' (een compleet absurde leugen)—it would act as an adverb of degree and drop the -e.
Is krantenkop literally a 'newspaper head'?
Yes! While kop means 'head' (often used for animals, or informally for people), it is also the standard Dutch word for a 'heading' or 'headline'. The connecting -en- joins krant (newspaper) and kop to form the compound noun krantenkop.
Why do we use die for 'that' headline instead of dat?
Compound nouns always take the gender of their final part. Since kop is a de-word (de kop), the whole compound krantenkop is a de-word. For de-words, 'that' is always translated as die. You only use dat for het-words.
The word leugen ends in -en. Is it plural?
No, leugen (lie) is a singular noun that just naturally ends in -en. Other common examples are deken (blanket) and molen (mill). Because they already end in -en, their plurals are formed by adding an -s: leugens (lies).
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