# Forming the Stems of Schrijven and Genezen



## bluetoonwithcarrotandnail

What are the syllable breakdowns of Schrijven and Genezen?
Does it look like this?

(Schrij)(ven)
(Gene)(zen)

Is ij long or short and Gene- is probably not correct because 
there is an 'e' hanging off the end.  These are words where
V is going to become F and Z is going to become S.

Thanks.


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## Lopes

I can only tell you that Genezen has 3 syllables, ge-ne-zen. Off v's becoming f's I know allmost nothing..


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## HKK

Schrij-ven is correct. Genezen is split ge-ne-zen like Lopes said. The e hanging off the end is not a problem, it's just an open syllable. 

The ij in schrijven is a diphthong, as are ei/ui/eu/ou/au. I don't think diphthongs are labelled long/short, because that distinction is about vowels, not diphthongs. But if they are, I suppose they're all long. (Except the ij in -lijk, which is a short vowel.)


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## Joannes

Mind you, <eu> (in writing) is no diphtong, <eeuw> argueably is.


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## Espadachin

To form the stems, though, it would break down like this:

schrijv'  -en

ge-nez'  -en

The 'v' will become an 'f' for certain verb conjugations (ie: ik schrijf) and the 'z' will become an 's' for some (ik genees).


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## Frank06

Hi,



Espadachin said:


> To form the stems, though, it would break down like this:
> schrijv' -en
> ge-nez' -en
> The 'v' will become an 'f' for certain verb conjugations (ie: ik schrijf) and the 'z' will become an 's' for some (ik genees).


 
Excuse me my nitpicking, but /v/ becomes /f/ and /z/ becomes /s/ not just for certain conjugations, but simply because voiced consonants at the end of a word get devoiced. This is sometimes reflected in the spelling (v>f, z>s), sometimes not (d>d, b>b).

It's one of the inconsistencies of the Dutch spelling. Just a few examples of other verbs (and nouns):
(1)
v/f
leven > leev > (ik) leef
duiven > duiv > een duif
z/s
reizen > reiz > (ik) reis
huizen > huiz > een huis

But:
(2)
- hebben > heb > ik heb (pronounced as /ik hep/)
- honden > hond > een hond (pronounced as /hont/)

If we would generalise the logic of the first series, then we would have to write the words in the second series as 'een hont' en 'ik hep'.
If we would follow the logic of the second series, then we would have to write the words in the first series as 'ik leev', 'een duiv'.
Alas, Dutch spelling isn't always logical, which makes it much more fun to learn it, no? ;-).

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Espadachin

Agreed.

Alas, I fear I tried to oversimplify - it is an art that I have yet to master  

Matt


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