De wind veranderde plotseling van richting.

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Breakdown of De wind veranderde plotseling van richting.

• plotseling: suddenly
• veranderen: to change
• de wind: the wind

Questions & Answers about De wind veranderde plotseling van richting.

Why is it de wind and not het wind?

Because wind is a de-word in Dutch. Grammatical gender in Dutch has to be learned with each noun, and wind takes the article de.

So:

• de wind = the wind

There is no simple rule that lets you predict this from the meaning alone, so it is best to memorize nouns together with their article.

What tense is veranderde?

Veranderde is the simple past of veranderen (to change).

The verb forms are:

• veranderen = to change
• verandert = changes / is changing
• veranderde = changed / was changing
• heeft veranderd = has changed

In this sentence, veranderde means changed:

• De wind veranderde plotseling van richting.
• The wind suddenly changed direction.

Why does the verb end in -de here?