Word
Een lage winstmarge is niet ondenkbaar.
Meaning
A low profit margin is not unthinkable.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Een lage winstmarge is niet ondenkbaar.
Does niet ondenkbaar mean the same thing as simply saying it is "mogelijk" (possible)?
It means more than just a neutral "possible". Using this double negative (a rhetorical device called litotes) creates a deliberate understatement. By saying a low profit margin is "not unthinkable", the speaker is actually emphasizing that it is a very real, and perhaps likely, risk.
Why is the adjective written as lage instead of laag?
Because winstmarge is a de-word (de marge). When an adjective precedes a de-word with the indefinite article een, it gets an -e ending. Notice the spelling rule at play too: the double 'a' in laag loses a vowel in lage to maintain the long 'a' sound when the syllable becomes open.
How do I know whether a compound noun like winstmarge takes de or het?
The gender of a Dutch compound noun is always determined by its final component. Because the second part is de marge, the entire compound is a de-word. This rule is what dictates the adjective ending (lage) earlier in the sentence.
The word ondenkbaar ends in -baar. What does this suffix do?