Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Dutch grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Anna verzacht haar woorden.
What role does verzacht play in the sentence Anna verzacht haar woorden?
Verzacht is the verb. It is the third person singular present tense form of the infinitive verzachten (“to soften”). This form correctly agrees with the singular subject Anna.
How is the form verzacht derived from the infinitive verzachten?
To form the third person singular, you remove the -en ending from verzachten to obtain the stem verzacht. Since the stem already ends in -t, no additional ending is needed. This yields verzacht for Anna.
What is the structure of the sentence in terms of subject, verb, and object?
The sentence follows a standard Dutch word order for simple declarative sentences: Anna is the subject, verzacht is the verb, and haar woorden is the object. This is similar to the subject-verb-object (SVO) order found in English.
What is the function of the possessive adjective haar in this sentence?
The word haar is a possessive adjective meaning “her”. It specifies that the words being softened belong to Anna. In Dutch, as in English, the possessive adjective precedes the noun and replaces the need for an article in this context.
How does this Dutch sentence compare to its English equivalent in terms of word order and structure?
The Dutch sentence Anna verzacht haar woorden closely matches its English equivalent “Anna softens her words”. Both follow an SVO structure, and the placement of the possessive adjective before the noun is consistent across both languages, making the sentence construction relatively straightforward for learners.