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Questions & Answers about In het westen is de rivier breder.
Why is it breder with one 'e', when the basic word for 'wide' is breed?
When you add -er to make the comparative, the word splits into syllables like this: bre-der. Because the first syllable ends in a vowel sound, it is an 'open' syllable. In Dutch spelling rules, a long vowel sound in an open syllable is always written with just one letter.
The lesson is about using dan (than) for comparisons, but it's missing here. Why?
Just like in English, you don't need to use dan (than) if you are not explicitly stating what you are comparing it to. The sentence just says the river is 'wider' (breder), and we naturally assume it means wider than it is in other places.
Why does the verb is come before the subject de rivier?
This is a reminder of the Dutch inversion rule. Because the sentence starts with a phrase telling us 'where' (In het westen), the verb must take the second position in the sentence. This pushes the subject (de rivier) right after the verb.
Why isn't westen capitalized here?
In Dutch, points of the compass like het noorden (the north), het oosten (the east), het zuiden (the south), and het westen (the west) are written with a lowercase letter when referring to a general direction or area.