Haar gezicht werd rood van de kou.

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Breakdown of Haar gezicht werd rood van de kou.

• haar: her
• rood: red
• de kou: the cold

Questions & Answers about Haar gezicht werd rood van de kou.

Why is it haar gezicht and not haar gezichtje or het haar gezicht?

Haar gezicht means her face.

• haar is the possessive adjective her
• gezicht is the noun face
• Dutch does not use an article before a possessive in this kind of phrase, so het haar gezicht is wrong

So the structure is simply:

• haar gezicht = her face
• mijn gezicht = my face
• zijn gezicht = his face

gezichtje would mean little face or cute face, which changes the meaning and tone.

What does werd mean here?

Werd is the past tense of worden, which usually means to become.

So:

• wordt rood = becomes red / turns red
• werd rood = became red / turned red

In this sentence, werd rood describes a change of state: her face was not red before, and then it turned red.

Why does Dutch use werd rood instead of just was rood?