"Ten zuidoosten hiervan is een prachtige grote maan te zien."

[u/Stars_And_Garters]

Hello,

I am a novice learner, English first language. This sentence was provided to me by Google Translate, but I have two questions.

1. What is the purpose of "ten" in this sentence? How would the sentence change without it?

2. When do I use "grote" instead of "groot"? It's because it's an adjective.

[u/Firespark7]

1. Ten = te + den, te = old fashioned Dutch version of to, den = an old fashioned version of de¹ (the). -> ten = an old fashioned location particle, mainly used in phrases like these that haven't changed since ten was actually used.

2. Both groot and grote are adjectives. I have a whole post about it on my profile here

¹Directions are neuter (het) nowadays, so either they changed genus from masculine to neuter over time or ten = te + de/den/het (de used to be feminine the, den used to be masculin the, but nowadays we use de for both).

[u/muffinsballhair → u/Firespark7]

“den” is used in the dative case for neuter, masculine and plural nouns. This can be seen from things such as “In den beginne” or “ten einde”.

[u/Firespark7 → u/muffinsballhair]

Dankjewel voor deze toevoeging

[u/AVeryHandsomeCheese → u/muffinsballhair]

And it's still the article for masculine nouns in Belgian Dutch, for example "den tv"/"nen tv"

[u/muffinsballhair → u/AVeryHandsomeCheese]

Yes, but that descends from the accusative case. The dialects above the Rhine which became the basis of the standard had the nominative case replace the other cases, but the dialects below the Rhine had the accusative case replace the other cases.

This is by the way also done in the Southern dialects off the Netherlands below the Rhine. One of the reasons I really don't like this “Dutch Dutch” and “Belgian Dutch” distinction that's often made. The real important linguistic division is the Rhine river for the most part.

[u/Stars_And_Garters → u/Firespark7]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not great at grammatical terms, I really meant "adjective before the noun".

[u/VisualizerMan]

As for the -e ending, see:

https://dutchdiction.com/grammar_theory/adjective-inflection-in-dutch-definiteness-and-neutrality/

[u/Stars_And_Garters → u/VisualizerMan]

Thanks I will read up!

[u/eti_erik → u/[deleted]]

You can't say "zuid van", it's alway ten zuiden van.

[u/fennekeg → u/eti_erik]

hooguit “zuidelijk van”