Grammatica - loco

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(c) where the first part is a noun that has no plural, e.g. rijstepap ‘rice
pudding’ (i.e. < de rijst)
(d) where the first part, although a noun, is acting as an adjective, e.g.
hondeweer ‘awful weather’ (lit. ‘dog weather’), luizebaan ‘dreadful
job’ (lit. ‘louse job’).
(e) where the first part is a noun of which only one exists, e.g.
Koninginnedag ‘Queen’s Birthday holiday’, 8 zonneschijn ‘sunshine’.
There are a few more categories but these are the major ones. These rules
may seem a little complicated but they amount to the following: if in
doubt, always write -en- and you won’t often be wrong.
More difficult for foreigners, but not for native-speakers, is knowing where
a medial sound is required at all in such compounds, given that in English
we simply put two nouns together, as the translations of the above examples
illustrate. Thus why one says kinderbed ‘child’s bed’ and broekspijp ‘trouser
leg’ is impossible to give consistent prescriptive rules for—it is merely a
matter of sound and as the Dutch always know what sounds right, for
them there is no problem here. It should be mentioned, however, that
whether a medial s sounds right in a certain limited number of words is
a matter of opinion, and in such cases one is free to write what one says,
i.e. either geluidhinder or geluidshinder ‘noise pollution’, either klimaatverandering
or klimaatsverandering ‘climate change’, either voorbehoedmiddel
or voorbehoedsmiddel ‘contraceptive’.
2.8
Trendy spellings
Avant-garde publications sometimes apply a ‘phonetic’ spelling to foreign
words although this is definitely not condoned by the Woordenlijst:
bureau – buro ‘office, desk’, cadeau/cadeautje – kado/kadootje
‘gift’, niveau – nivo ‘level’, historisch – histories ‘historical’,
theater – tejater ‘theatre’
The spellings with o instead of eau are very widespread.
8 Koninginnedag is April 30th. It is not in fact the queen’s birthday but it was the
birthday of the present queen’s mother, Juliana, and the day on which Beatrix was inducted
as queen; Dutch monarchs are not crowned.
Trendy
spellings
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