Breakdown of De katoenen jas is goedkoper dan de wollen jas.
de jas
the coat
goedkoop
cheap
wollen
woolen
katoenen
cotton (made of)
Questions & Answers about De katoenen jas is goedkoper dan de wollen jas.
Why do we use katoenen and wollen instead of just katoen and wol?
In Dutch, when you want to describe what something is made of, you usually add -en to the material noun to turn it into an adjective. So katoen (cotton) becomes katoenen (made of cotton), and wol (wool) becomes wollen (woollen / made of wool).
Why does wollen have two 'l's when the base word wol only has one?
This happens because of the Dutch spelling rules for keeping vowels short. The 'o' in wol is a short vowel. When we add the -en ending, we have to double the consonant (the 'l') to keep that short 'o' sound. If we only wrote one 'l' (wolen), it would be pronounced with a long 'o' sound.
Normal adjectives usually get an extra -e ending with de words (like de mooie jas). Why don't these?
Material adjectives ending in -en are a special exception! They are fixed and never change. Whether the noun is a de word or a het word, the adjective stays exactly the same (katoenen, wollen). You never add an extra -e to them.
Why is goedkoper (cheaper) spelled with only one 'o', while the base word goedkoop (cheap) has two?
This is the opposite of the spelling rule we saw in wollen. The 'oo' in goedkoop is a long vowel. When we add the -er ending to make it comparative, the syllable splits (goed-ko-per). In Dutch, a single vowel at the end of a syllable is automatically pronounced long, so we drop the second 'o' because it's no longer needed.
Is "than" always translated as dan in comparisons like this?
Yes! When you are saying something is more or less than something else (using a comparative word like goedkoper), you always use dan for "than". You only use als when saying things are exactly equal (for example, "as cheap as" would be even goedkoop als).
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