Breakdown of De aanval vernietigde de gracht.
de aanval
the attack
de gracht
the moat
vernietigen
to destroy
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Questions & Answers about De aanval vernietigde de gracht.
How would we use waaronder (the topic of this lesson) to change this sentence to: "The attack destroyed many defenses, including the moat"?
You would say: De aanval vernietigde veel verdedigingswerken, waaronder de gracht. Here, waaronder (literally "under which") is used as a relative pronominal adverb meaning "including" or "among which" to highlight a specific example from a broader category.
Why does gracht mean "moat" here instead of "canal"?
While you probably know gracht from the famous city canals in the Netherlands, its historical meaning is a defensive ditch or moat surrounding a city, fortress, or castle. Given the context of an aanval (attack), "moat" is the natural translation. A purely navigational waterway is typically called a kanaal.
Let's review the simple past: why does vernietigde (destroyed) end in -de and not -te?
We determine the ending by looking at the stem of the infinitive vernietigen, which is vernietig. The final letter is g. Since g is a voiced consonant (it is not in the 't kofschip memory rule for voiceless consonants), the past tense takes the -de ending.
Is the noun aanval (attack) related to a verb?
Yes, it is derived from the separable verb aanvallen (to attack). Just like with the separable verb, the pronunciation places the stress heavily on the prefix: aan-val.