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Don’t be afraid of long words! That is one of the rules when you’re learning Dutch. Almost every word with more than two syllables is a compound. The more basic words you learn, the easier it gets to break down longer words into unterstandable chunks. Dutch compounds are usually written as one word, which English does not normally do. theelepel = teaspoon zonlicht = sunlight appelsap = apple juice stadhuis = city hall kerstboom = christmas tree In some words there is a connecting element –e-, -en-, or –s-: zonnebril = sunglasses kattenvoer = cat food dorpskerk = village church When the first member of the compound is a verb, we use the stem of the verb: rijles = driving lesson zwembad = swimming pool rookverbod = smoking ban It is ok if you smile at some of the Dutch compounds, such as handschoen 'glove' (hand shoe), spijkerbroek 'jeans' (nail trousers), vuurtoren 'lighthouse' (fire tower), ziekenhuis 'hospital' (sick people's house), sinaasappel 'orange' (China's apple), rundvlees 'beef' (cattle meat). © DutchToday 2007 |
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