Breakdown of Het ingrediënt maakt de soep lekker.
lekker
tasty
maken
to make
de soep
the soup
het ingrediënt
the ingredient
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Dutch grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Het ingrediënt maakt de soep lekker.
Why is ingrediënt preceded by het instead of de?
In Dutch, nouns are assigned a grammatical gender. Ingrediënt is a neuter noun, which means it uses the article het. Unlike English, where the definite article “the” is used universally, Dutch requires you to choose between de (for common gender) and het (for neuter gender).
How is the verb maakt conjugated, and why is it used in this sentence?
Maakt is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb maken (to make). It is conjugated to agree with the singular subject het ingrediënt. This form indicates that the ingredient is actively causing the soup to be tasty.
What is the word order in this sentence, and is it typical for Dutch?
The sentence follows a Subject-Verb-Object-Predicate structure:
• Subject: het ingrediënt
• Verb: maakt
• Object: de soep
• Predicate adjective: lekker
This SVO order is standard in Dutch, much like in English, which makes it familiar to learners.
Why does the adjective lekker appear without any inflection?
In Dutch, adjectives used in the predicate position (after the verb) remain uninflected. Here, lekker describes the soup after the verb maakt. In contrast, if the adjective were placed before a noun (e.g., een lekkere soep), it would receive an ending based on the noun’s gender and number.
What role does the article de play before soep?
The noun soep is of common gender in Dutch, which means it takes the definite article de. This signals that you are referring to a specific soup. Learning which nouns take de or het is an important part of mastering Dutch article usage.