Archive for 'Dutch Vocabulary'
Tackling Tricky Dutch Words Posted by heather on Mar 1, 2011
In Dutch, there are some words that have the same meaning but are used in different ways. Below you will find three example pairs and some tips to help you know when to use which. It is worth remembering that there will always be exceptions, so these are more guidelines than hard and fast rules…
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…
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…