Archive for 'Dutch Grammar'
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…
De or Het? Knowing When to Use Which Posted by heather on Jan 25, 2011
In Dutch there are two definite articles (words that mean ‘the’). These are de and het. The article de is for masculine and feminine nouns. These are also known as common nouns. The article het is for neuter words. Knowing when a word is common or neuter is one of the challenges in learning Dutch, as…
How Did You Find That? Posted by heather on Dec 29, 2010
Today I went out with the intention of taking a photo for a different post but what I wanted wasn’t there, so that will just have to wait until another time! However, when I was returning, I noticed that one of the neighbours had taped something to his garage door. When I got a little…