Een winnend idee geeft vertrouwen.

a, an

Breakdown of Een winnend idee geeft vertrouwen.

• geven: to give
• het idee: the idea
• winnend: winning

Questions & Answers about Een winnend idee geeft vertrouwen.

What part of speech is winnend in this sentence?

winnend is the present participle (the -end form) of the verb winnen (‘to win’). Here it’s used attributively, just like an adjective, to describe idee—literally “a winning idea.”

Why doesn’t winnend get an -e ending?

Dutch adjectives (including participles) normally take -e when they precede a noun. However, there’s an important exception: when an adjective comes before a singular indefinite neuter noun, it stays uninflected (no -e). Since idee is a neuter word (het-woord) with the indefinite article een, you write een winnend idee, not een winnende idee.

What is the gender of idee, and how do you know?

idee is a neuter noun. You can tell because its definite form is het idee, not de idee. Many Dutch dictionaries mark idee as het-woord, and loanwords from French (like idee) often turn out neuter.

How would you make the sentence plural?