Breakdown of De astronoom rangschikt de vergrote foto's.
de foto
the photo
vergroten
to enlarge
de astronoom
the astronomer
rangschikken
to classify / to arrange (in order)
Questions & Answers about De astronoom rangschikt de vergrote foto's.
Why doesn't the verb rangschikken split into schikt ... rang like a normal separable verb?
Rangschikken is an inseparable back-formation (derived from a noun rather than built by combining a preposition with an active verb). Because it functions as a single, indivisible root, it never splits. You will always see forms like hij rangschikt, never hij schikt rang.
How do you form the past participle of an inseparable back-formation like rangschikken?
You treat it exactly like a normal, single-word verb and place the ge- prefix at the very beginning: gerangschikt. This is a common pattern for back-formations, similar to stofzuigen (gestofzuigd) and beeldhouwen (gebeeldhouwd).
The past participle of vergroten is vergroot. Why does it lose an o when written as de vergrote foto's?
This is due to Dutch spelling rules for open syllables. Because foto's is plural, the adjective takes an -e ending. This breaks the word into syllables as ver-gro-te. Since the o is now at the end of a syllable (an "open" syllable), it is automatically pronounced long. We drop the extra o because it is no longer needed.
Why is the plural written as foto's with an apostrophe?
In Dutch, nouns ending in a single vowel (a, i, o, u, or y) take an apostrophe before the plural s. This preserves the pronunciation of the long vowel. Without the apostrophe (fotos), the syllable would end in a consonant, which would incorrectly change the sound to a short o.
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