Week X

[ReidSchluter]

This week I worked on two short units on my book that explicated use of apostrophe's and family vocabulary. More importantly, I also learned a list of important adjectives that Jan gave me, as well as when to apply an '-e' ending depending on whether the adjective is used predictively or attributively (before or after the noun).Apostrophe's are only used to indicate possession following a name, in all other cases it is typical to use the preposition 'van'. The apostrophe goes before the 's' if the person's name ends in a vowel (i.e. Anna's), whereas it comes after the last letter if the name ends in a consonant (i.e. Marius'). Cases in which possession is not indicated with a proper noun name or a possessive pronoun use 'van' as the means to indicate possession.Family names I learned are very straightforward. I learned 'vrouw-wife', 'moeder-mother', 'zus-sister', etc.... 'In-law' is dictated by a 'schoon-' prefix to any of these words, while 'groot-great/big' & 'klein-small/little' amend 'son' & 'daughter' into 'grandson' & 'granddaughter'.Jan gave me a list of 30 frequently used adjectives to boost my vocabulary. This helped me as the book covered the spelling changes that affect adjectives. As a result, I have for the first time incorporated a basic understanding of adjectives into my knowledge of Dutch as the book had not discussed them yet. Adjectives are subject to the same spelling changes as the conjugation of verbs in order to maintain the long or short nature of the vowel. As a result, an '-e' ending is added to adjectives occurring before the noun, but only in a definite circumstance (i.e. 'mijn-my' or 'dit-this' rather than 'een-a' or 'elke-each'). Examples include: 'een groot huis' / 'dat grote huis'; 'de kind is slim' / 'de slimme kind'. Spelling changes are necessary to maintain the long & short vowels in 'groot' & 'slim' respectively. These rules work in conjunction with the rules for conjugating verbs however, so I already have a fairly good grasp on it.Next week I work on interrogatives (i.e. who, what, when, where, why questions) and the future tense.