{"id":5242,"date":"2017-11-20T23:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T23:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5242"},"modified":"2017-11-20T23:00:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T23:00:38","slug":"curious-words-in-dutch-opdat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/curious-words-in-dutch-opdat\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Words in Dutch: Opdat"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. Starting today with\u00a0opdat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash<\/p><\/div>\n

Voegwoorden<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Opdat<\/em> is a\u00a0voegwoord\u00a0<\/em>(conjunction). This means that its purpose is to paste two sentences together. There are many\u00a0voegwoorden\u00a0<\/em>around, such as\u00a0maar\u00a0<\/em>(but),\u00a0als\u00a0<\/em>(if),\u00a0voordat\u00a0<\/em>(before), and more. So what is so curious about\u00a0opdat<\/em>, why does it deserve a post for itself?<\/p>\n

That is because\u00a0opdat\u00a0<\/em>is used very little. Its meaning is close to the meaning of the word\u00a0zodat\u00a0<\/em>(so that, so as to), and that word is just used a lot more. Just compare: Googling opdat\u00a0<\/i>gives about 3 million results, while googling\u00a0zodat\u00a0<\/em>gives more than 60 million results. So what is the real difference between these two words?<\/p>\n

Opdat <\/em>and\u00a0Zodat<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

So what is the difference between the two? Both are grouped under\u00a0voegwoorden van reden, oorzaak en gevolg\u00a0<\/em>(conjunctions of reason, cause and consequence). This means that they connect a statement with a reason, cause or consequence. For example:\u00a0Hij fietste snel naar huis, zodat hij niet te laat zou komen\u00a0<\/em>(He quickly cycled home, so that he would not come late). In this sentence, you could also use\u00a0opdat<\/em>:\u00a0Hij fietste snel naar huis, opdat hij niet te laat zou komen<\/em>. So here, the meaning is exactly the same, just that\u00a0opdat\u00a0<\/em>is a lot more formal, and you won’t really hear it in\u00a0spreektaal\u00a0<\/em>(everyday language).<\/p>\n

The real difference in meaning is that\u00a0zodat\u00a0<\/em>has another one. It can also connect a\u00a0gevolg<\/em> (consequence), which\u00a0opdat\u00a0<\/em>cannot:\u00a0Het geld was op, zodat vader wat moest lenen\u00a0<\/em>(The money was spent, so that father had to borrow some). As you can see, it does not seem like the most natural construction either. We would mostly use something more conclusive, such as\u00a0dus<\/em> for a consequence:\u00a0Het geld was op en dus moest vader wat lenen\u00a0<\/em>(The money was spent and so dad had to borrow some). This just rings better, also in English.<\/p>\n

A little nuance is still in when people would use\u00a0opdat<\/em>. Mostly what you find is that it is used to specifically connect a goal:\u00a0ik eet vegetarisch, opdat ik gezonder leef\u00a0<\/em>(I eat vegetarian, so that I live more healthy). What we would rather say is:\u00a0ik eet vegetarisch om gezonder te leven\u00a0<\/em>(I eat vegetarian to live more healthily).<\/p>\n

In the end, you can say that they can be used both in situations where the consequence is also the goal. So in the example of cycling home quickly, not being late would be both consequence and goal, so both could be used. But again, instead of\u00a0opdat<\/em>,\u00a0zodat\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0om … te<\/em> are used more.<\/p>\n

So if\u00a0opdat\u00a0<\/em>is actually useful, why is it used so little?<\/p>\n

Less used<\/h2>\n

Opdat\u00a0<\/em>is used a lot less nowadays. It is hard to find why exactly that is, but I have a hunch that it is related to the\u00a0naamvallen\u00a0<\/em>(cases).\u00a0Opdat\u00a0<\/em>was connected to the\u00a0third\u00a0naamval<\/em>, the dative case. However, the\u00a0naamvallen\u00a0<\/em>do not exist much anymore in Dutch grammar. Most rules, such as\u00a0des\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0der\u00a0<\/em>were replaced with\u00a0van de\/het<\/em>. And since the use of\u00a0opdat\u00a0<\/em>depended on the\u00a0naamval<\/em>, it may be that it fell into disuse because of the decline of the\u00a0naamval<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Do you like the word\u00a0opdat<\/em>? Would you use it? What other curious words do you know in Dutch?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. Starting today with\u00a0opdat. Voegwoorden Opdat is a\u00a0voegwoord\u00a0(conjunction). This means that its purpose is…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":5243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,27710,3590,27711],"tags":[9618,503854,506077,506078],"class_list":["post-5242","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-grammar","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-conjunction","tag-curious-words","tag-opdat","tag-voegwoorden"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5244,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions\/5244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}