The pattern
After zijn, worden and blijven, the adjective gets no -e. The -e belongs before a noun.
- These three are linking verbs: verbs that link the subject to a description. Het huis is groot. Ik word moe. Het blijft koud.
- De-word, het-word or plural: after the verb it makes no difference. De soep is warm. De appels zijn duur.
- Put the adjective before a noun and the -e usually appears: de warme soep, de dure appels. The details are in Adjective endings: when to add -e.
- No -e also means none of the spelling changes: duur stays duur, wit stays wit.
- Lijken (to seem) works the same way: Het lijkt duur.
Examples
| De koffie is koud. | The coffee is cold. |
| Ik drink geen koude koffie. | I don't drink cold coffee. |
| De fiets van Ahmed is nieuw. | Ahmed's bike is new. |
| Ahmed heeft een nieuwe fiets. | Ahmed has a new bike. |
| De appels zijn duur. | The apples are expensive. |
| Priya koopt geen dure appels. | Priya doesn't buy expensive apples. |
| Ik word moe. | I'm getting tired. |
| In november wordt het vroeg donker. | In November it gets dark early. |
| Het weer blijft mooi. | The weather stays nice. |
| Fatima blijft rustig. | Fatima stays calm. |
Why it works this way
An adjective can do two jobs. Before a noun, it helps to name something: de koude koffie is one package, and the -e ties that package together. After is, wordt or blijft, the adjective is a separate comment about the subject: De koffie is koud. A comment stands on its own, so it stays bare.
German does the same (Das Haus ist groß), so German speakers have a head start. In Spanish and Arabic, adjectives agree with the noun even after the verb, so speakers of those languages often add -e after a plural subject. English speakers usually get it right at first, then start adding -e in the wrong places right after learning the ending.
You will sometimes hear an -e after is anyway: Mijn fiets is de rode (my bike is the red one). That -e is there because the noun fiets is understood after rode, with de in front. A bare adjective after the verb never gets -e. A few adjectives, like open, never take -e anywhere: see Adjectives that never take -e.
Remember: the -e is glue that only sticks an adjective to a noun. After is, wordt or blijft there is no noun to stick to, so the glue stays in the tube.
Watch out
NotDe soep is warme.
SayDe soep is warm.
no noun follows, so no -e, even with a de-word
NotDe kinderen worden grote.
SayDe kinderen worden groot.
plurals get no -e after the verb either
NotHet blijft koude.
SayHet blijft koud.
blijven is a linking verb too
NotHet is een koud dag.
SayHet is een koude dag.
here the de-word dag follows, so the -e is needed
Quick check
- Fill in the right form of vol: De trein is ...
- Fill in the right form of snel: Bas heeft een ... fiets.
- Choose boos or boze: Yara wordt ...
- Fix the sentence: De bananen worden bruine.
Show the answers
- vol: it comes after is, so no -e.
- snelle: the adjective stands before the de-word fiets, so it gets -e, and the l doubles after the short vowel.
- boos: after wordt the adjective stays bare.
- De bananen worden bruin. A plural subject changes nothing after worden.
Use it today
Tonight, describe your day in three short sentences with is, wordt and blijft, for example Het is koud, Ik word moe and Het blijft druk op het werk. Then turn one of them into a phrase with a noun, like een koude dag.