Archive by Author
Word Order in Indirect Speech Posted by heather on Feb 22, 2011
Phew, we made it! Four weeks of looking at word order in Dutch. We have stumbled through main clauses, sub-clauses and now lastly we are coming up to indirect speech. By no means have we covered it all but hopefully you have learned some tips and understood some of the rules that have helped in…
Word Order in Subordinated Clauses Posted by heather on Feb 15, 2011
Having covered word order in main clauses (here and here), it is time to move onto the word order in subordinated clauses. In a subordinated clause, known in Dutch as a bijzin, the conjugated verb moves to the end of the clause. Heather blijft thuis omdat ze ziek is. (Heather stays home because she is…
Red Bull Crashed Ice Valkenburg Posted by heather on Feb 10, 2011
Steep turns, high vertical drops and all whilst on ice; Red Bull Crashed Ice arrived for the first time in the Netherlands on Saturday, February 5th 2011. Crashed Ice is an extreme sporting event sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull and is made up of a mixture of hockey, downhill skating and boardercross. The…
Word Order in Main Clauses Continued Posted by heather on Feb 8, 2011
Last week I wrote about word order in main clauses. As a quick review, the key points I mentioned were: that the main verb goes in the second position except when the subject is not the first part of the sentence, when making a yes/no question or when the sentence is in the command form…
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2011 Posted by heather on Feb 3, 2011
The 40th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is just about to arrive at its conclusion on February 6th. The IFFR is an annual film festival, held in the city of Rotterdam at the end of January and is considered to be in the realm of other large European film festivals such as…
Word Order? What Word Order? Posted by heather on Feb 1, 2011
Word order in Dutch is one of the grammar topics that many non-native Dutch speakers notice a difference with. I know it is something that trips me up quite often, especially when I am making longer sentences. Word order isn’t something that I can cover in one post, so do watch out for further posts…
Questions and Question Words Posted by heather on Jan 27, 2011
In Dutch there is a distinction between ‘yes/no’ questions and questions beginning with a question word (also known as interrogative). Both situations require that you invert (reverse position) the subject and the verb. This is because Dutch is a verb second (V2) language. Meaning that, in the main clause, the verb is found in the…