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Questions & Answers about Het boek is ingewikkeld.
What does Het boek is ingewikkeld mean in English?
It translates to The book is complicated. This implies that the book is challenging or complex in some way.
Why does the sentence use the article het instead of de with boek?
In Dutch, nouns are classified as either common or neuter. The noun boek is neuter, so it takes the definite article het. In contrast, common gender nouns use de.
What is the grammatical structure of this sentence?
The sentence follows a simple subject–verb–predicate structure. Het boek is the subject, is is the linking verb, and ingewikkeld is the predicate adjective that describes the subject. This is similar to the English sentence The book is complicated.
How would you change this sentence to say The books are complicated?
To express the plural, you would say De boeken zijn ingewikkeld. Notice these changes:
• het boek (singular, neuter) becomes de boeken (plural; all plurals take de), and
• is becomes zijn to agree with the plural subject.
Does the adjective ingewikkeld change its form depending on its position in the sentence?
No, in this sentence ingewikkeld is used as a predicate adjective following the linking verb is, so it remains in its base form. Adjectives might receive an ending when used attributively (directly before a noun), but that rule does not apply here.
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