Archive for 'Dutch Language'
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…
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…
Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share Posted by Elena on Feb 6, 2011
This past week I finally sat down to watch an episode of the long(est)-running Dutch soap opera, “Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden,” which has been beloved by 1.3 million viewers once a week since October 1990. I wanted to watch because the show had been mentioned at my office: one of my coworkers proposed that drama…
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…
Kids these days say the darndest things Posted by Elena on Jan 30, 2011
Awhile ago now, I was talking to one of my friends about whether there was any Dutch hip hop I should be covering for this blog. I probably asked with a little bit of a smile, because the idea of Dutch hip hop is funny. He mentioned De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig and Die Antwoord, though…
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…