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Tom schildert de schoorsteen rood.

Tom schildert de schoorsteen rood.
Tom paints the chimney red.
FromLesson 22inHardcore Dutch

Breakdown of Tom schildert de schoorsteen rood.

Tom
Tom
schilderen
to paint
rood
red
de schoorsteen
the chimney

Questions & Answers about Tom schildert de schoorsteen rood.

What does schildert mean and how is it formed?
Schildert is the third‐person singular present tense of schilderen (“to paint”). You take the stem schilder- and add -t for hij/zij/het (he/she/it).
Why is rood not rode in this sentence?
Here rood is used predicatively as a resultative complement (showing the end state of the chimney), not attributively. Predicative or resultative adjectives in Dutch keep their base form. By contrast, if you describe the chimney before painting it, you say de rode schoorsteen (attributive adjective takes -e after a de-word).
What grammatical role does rood play in “Tom schildert de schoorsteen rood”?
Rood is an object complement (often called a resultative). ItCompletes the meaning of the verb by indicating the resulting color of the direct object (de schoorsteen).
Why does the adjective come after the object instead of before it, unlike attributive adjectives?
This is a fixed resultative construction: Dutch (like English) uses the pattern [verb] + [direct object] + [resultative adjective]. The adjective follows the object because it’s not describing it in advance, but stating the result of the action.
Can you use verven instead of schilderen here? Are they interchangeable?

Often yes. Schilderen can also imply artistic painting (e.g. a portrait), whereas verven is more common for painting walls, fences, chimneys, etc. But in casual speech about houses or chimneys, both verbs are acceptable:
• Tom verft de schoorsteen rood.

How else could you express “paint … red” in Dutch?

You can use a prepositional phrase:
Tom schildert de schoorsteen in het rood.
That literally means “in the red” and is a common alternative way to specify the color.

How do you form the past tense and past participle of schilderen in this sentence?

Simple past (imperfectum) for hij/zij/het is schilderde:
• Tom schilderde de schoorsteen rood.
Past participle is geschilderd, used with hebben:
• Tom heeft de schoorsteen rood geschilderd.

Why is the article de used before schoorsteen, not het?
Schoorsteen is a common‐gender noun in Dutch, so it takes de. Dutch genders are lexical and must be memorized; there’s no rule that every noun with a certain ending is automatically de or het.
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