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Stem rule 1
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English version by Bieneke Berendsen :: other languages
Regular verbs can have Internal link long or Internal link short vowels. Recall, from the chapter about spelling and pronunciation (see Internal link rules for keeping vowels long/short):

Long vowel infinitives
require long vowel stems

Take, for example, maken (to make).

Following the rule for deriving the crude stem from the infinitive (stem = infinitive minus -en ), we would get mak, which has a short vowel (it is a single, closed vowel). To keep the vowel long, we need to add an extra a. The stem then becomes maak.

Examples of similar verbs are:

infinitive english crude stem stem
nemen to take nem neem
lopen to walk lop loop
leren to learn ler leer
koken to cook kok kook
breken to break brek breek
vuren to shoot vur vuur
horen to hear hor hoor
weten to know wet weet
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