There are two suffixes and one type of prefix that always form a separate syllable, regardless of the consonants that precede or follow after them.
The prefixes: be-, er-, ge-, her-, ont-, and ver-
besturen | be-stu-ren | to steer, to reign | not: bes-tu-ren
gebruiken | ge-brui-ken | to use | not: geb-rui-ken
herindelen | her-in-de-len | to reorganise | not: he-rin-de-len
ontaarden | ont-aar-den | to degenerate | not: on-taar-den
veranderen | ver-an-de-ren | to change | not: ve-ran-de-ren
The suffix: -ische for adjectives
Many Dutch adjectives end in -isch or -ische (inflected). It means something like English -ish.
If we look at -ische, 'i' and 'sche' are separate syllables (which is contrary to the [Rules for dividing a word into syllables](#/lesson/SpellingAndPronunciation.05)).
The [consonant](#/lesson/SpellingAndPronunciation.22) combination "sch" should normally be pronounced as English 'skh'. But in this particular case, we only pronounce 's' (see also: Words with an [irregular pronunciation](#/lesson/SpellingAndPronunciation.24)). We therefore consider 'sch' as one consonant and thus place it at the beginning of the next syllable.
Belgische | Bel-gi-sche | Belgian | not: Bel-gis-che
egoïstische | e-go-is-ti-sche | selfish | not: e-go-is-tis-che
The suffix -thie for nouns and -thisch(e) for adjectives
These (Greek) endings are the equivalents of the English -thy (sympathy) and -thic. In Dutch, the _h_ is not pronounced, -thie simply sounds like the English tea.
We consider the consonant combination th as one. Recall, that when two vowels are divided by only one consonant, the consonant is added to the next syllable.
sympathie | sym-pa-thie | sympathy | not sym-pat-hie
empathische | em-pa-thi-sche | empathic | not em-pat-his-che
The suffix '-achtig'(e) for adjectives
'-achtig' is the Dutch translation for English '-like'
waarachtig | waar-ach-tig | truly | not waa-rach-tig
reusachtig | reus-ach-tig | giant (-like) | not reu-sach-tig