Colors & Clothing
Colors & Clothing
Colors are where the Dutch adjective ending becomes impossible to avoid, because you name a color almost every time you describe a garment. The rule turns on the article in front of the noun, something English adjectives never react to.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Color adjectives take -e except before an indefinite het-word
de rode jas, het rode shirt, een rode jas — BUT een rood shirt
the red coat, the red shirt, a red coat — but a red shirt
English 'red' is 'red' in every position. A Dutch color adjective standing before a noun normally adds -e: de rode jas, de rode schoenen, het rode shirt. The one exception is a het-word with een (or with no article at all): there the adjective stays bare — een rood shirt, een wit huis. So the ending you need depends on two things at once: whether the noun is a de-word or a het-word, and whether the article is definite or indefinite.
Colors used on their own, after the verb, never inflect
De jas is rood. Het shirt is rood.
The coat is red. The shirt is red.
The -e ending only appears when the adjective sits directly in front of its noun. Move the color after a form of zijn ('to be') and it drops every ending, regardless of gender or number: De jas is rood, De schoenen zijn rood. This is a useful escape hatch early on — if you are unsure of an ending, rephrase so the color follows the verb.
Clothing is usually singular where English can go either way
de broek (one pair of trousers), de bril (one pair of glasses)
the trousers, the glasses
English treats trousers, jeans, glasses and scissors as plural — 'my trousers are new'. Dutch treats them as ordinary singular nouns: mijn broek is nieuw, mijn bril is nieuw. There is no 'pair of' construction needed. Conversely de schoenen ('the shoes') is a genuine plural in both languages, so you cannot simply flip every clothing word to singular.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- red
- English
- blue
- English
- green
- English
- yellow
- English
- black
- English
- white
- English
- the coat
- English
- the trousers
- English
- the sweater
- English
- the shoes
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