Word
De jenever is een regionale drank.
Meaning
Jenever is a regional drink.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De jenever is een regionale drank.
regionaal
regional
de jenever
the Dutch gin
de drank
the drink / the liquor
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Questions & Answers about De jenever is een regionale drank.
Since this lesson is about making mass nouns countable with diminutives, why don't we use een jenevertje here?
Diminutives are used to turn a mass noun into a specific, countable serving—so een jenevertje means a glass or shot of jenever. This sentence, however, is talking about the liquor as a broad concept or category, not a single serving. Therefore, the base uncountable noun jenever is used.
The English translation just says "Jenever is...", so why does the Dutch sentence start with De?
Dutch frequently uses definite articles (de or het) with mass nouns when referring to the substance as a general, abstract category. You can absolutely say Jenever is een regionale drank without the article, but adding De gives it the slightly more formal, encyclopedic tone of "The drink known as jenever".
Quick refresher: why does regionale get an -e ending when it comes after the indefinite article een?
The rule where you drop the adjective's -e ending after een only applies to het-words. Because drank is a de-word (de drank), the adjective always takes the standard -e ending, even with een.
Does drank specifically mean an alcoholic drink, or just any beverage?