Questions & Answers about Veel mensen in de industrie zijn werkloos.
Why is it veel mensen and not vele mensen?
In Dutch, veel usually does not get an -e ending when it comes before a plural noun in everyday language. You might see vele mensen in formal writing or poetic contexts, but for a standard factual sentence like this, veel is the natural choice.
How does the suffix -loos work in werkloos?
The Dutch suffix -loos means "without" and works exactly like the English suffix "-less". So werkloos literally translates to "workless", meaning unemployed. You will also see this suffix in everyday words like draadloos (wireless) and eindeloos (endless).
Does industrie mean exactly the same thing as in English?
Yes, it does, but you need to be careful with the pronunciation. Unlike in English where the stress is near the beginning of the word, the stress in the Dutch word industrie falls heavily on the very last syllable (in-dus-TRIE).
Since this lesson is about the passive voice, is "zijn werkloos" a passive construction?
No, zijn werkloos is an active construction using the verb zijn (to be) followed by an adjective describing a state (unemployed). If you wanted to use a true simple past passive to describe the action of them losing their jobs, you would use werden (were) plus a past participle. For example: Veel mensen werden ontslagen (Many people were fired).
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