This of course leads to monstrosities of words such as zeeëgel (sea urchin), which isn't pronounced that differently from zegel (seal (or stamp)).
Most often it happens with plural forms though.
Some examples..
Koe (cow) - koeien (cows), and koeien loeien (cows moo), and koeien eten gras om te groeien (cows eat grass to grow).
Are you vowel-ed out yet??
There also is bloei-bloeien (to bloom) and so on and so forth.
The plural of zee (sea) is not 'zees' but zeeën, and the plural of bij (bee) is not bijs but bijen.
Naturally we like to let vowels disappear too. Thanks for your effort, but in the plural, you are no longer needed: vuur-vuren (fire-fires), boom-bomen (tree,trees), which is not to be confused with bom-bommen (bomb-bombs).
You see, it is a weird language Dutch. And these rules are simply inexplicable for non native speakers. I mean, I don't even know the why, I just.. Learned it.
Next week, I will talk to you about the mysterious and confusing "middle n". Why is it zonnebloem (sun flower) but pannenkoek (pancake)?
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