Grammatica - loco

Glossary of
grammatical
terms
426
imperative (e.g. Hij belde mij op/Bel mij op), and which permits the
ge- of the past participle to be inserted between it and the rest of the
verb, e.g. Hij heeft mij opgebeld.
SHORT VOWEL A short vowel is one which is pronounced short and
thus contrasts with the same vowel pronounced long, e.g. lat (short),
laat (long). (See ‘half-long vowels’.)
STEM The stem is the root form of a verb once the en ending of the
infinitive has been removed and the necessary spelling changes have
been made, e.g. the stem of lopen is loop and of schrijven is schrijf.
STRESS Refers to the emphasis applied to a syllable in a polysyllabic
word, e.g. burgemeester.
STRONG VERB Any verb which forms its past tenses by changing the
stem vowel while retaining the same consonantal environment, e.g.
spreken – sprak, spraken, gesproken.
SUBJECT The subject of a clause is the noun or pronoun that is performing
the action of the finite verb in that clause, e.g. ‘The man/he is reading
a book’. It determines what the ending of the finite verb will be, e.g.
De man/hij leest een boek, but Wij lezen een boek.
SUBJUNCTIVE (MOOD) A mood of the verb which pertains to an action
being hypothetical.
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE A subordinate clause is one which is introduced
by a subordinating conjunction, i.e. a joining word which subordinates
its clause to the main clause (= makes it secondary to), which is indicated
by the finite verb in the subordinate clause being relegated to the end
of that clause, e.g. Hij blijft vandaag thuis omdat hij zich niet lekker
voelt, where omdat is the subordinating conjunction and omdat hij
zich niet lekker voelt the subordinate clause. (See ‘main clause’ and
‘co-ordinate clause’.)
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION A conjunction which subordinates the
information in the clause which it heads to the information in the main
clause, indicated in Dutch by the placing of the finite verb in the
subordinate clause at the end of that clause. (See ‘subordinate clause’.)
SUFFIX An affix which follows the element to which it is added, e.g.
‘kindly’, blijkbaar.
SUPERLATIVE The superlative of an adjective or adverb is that form
which has ‘st’ added to it or is preceded by ‘most’, e.g. ‘biggest’, ‘most
interesting’.
SYLLABIFICATION The rules for hyphenating words are different in Dutch
from English where the derivation of the word is significant, e.g. ‘belong-ing’,
‘work-ed’. In Dutch words are always divided (syllabified)
by starting each new syllable with a consonant, e.g. kat-ten, ma-nen,