In this blog post, I’ll be introducing you to the two most important rules of the Dutch sentence structure. The Dutch sentence structure is quite infamous for being so annoyingly rigid but I’m here to explain to you how you can turn this structure into an advantage. The only thing that you need to understand is that the structure of the main clause repeats itself endlessly and that there are almost no exceptions to this.
RULE NUMBER 1: VERB = SECOND POSITION
1. STATEMENTS & FULL SENTENCES
In statements or full sentences, the conjugated verb (meaning, the verb that corresponds to the subject and will change form accordingly) will always come in second position, with the subject before or after it. Let’s look at some examples.
OPTION 1: Subject first
| Subject | Verb | Rest |
| Ik | kom | naar huis. |
| Mijn vader | woont | in België. |
| Ik | heb | drie kinderen. |
| Mijn broer | werkt | bij een bedrijf in Brussel. |
| Ik | ga | ‘s avonds altijd naar de gym. |
OPTION 2: Time first (*)
| Time | Verb | Subject | Rest |
| Morgen | kom | ik | naar huis. |
| ‘s Avonds | ga | ik | altijd naar de gym. |
| Op dinsdag | breng | ik | de kinderen naar school. |
| In het weekend | maak | ik | een wandeling in het park. |
| Volgende week | heb | ik | vakantie. |
(*) We could also put other elements other than time in the beginning of the sentence. For example, it’s also very common to put the location at the beginning of the sentence.
| Location | Verb | Subject | Rest |
| In het park | spelen | de kinderen. | |
| In België | spreken | de mensen | veel talen. |
| In de supermarkt | is | het eten | heel goedkoop. |
It’s even possible to put other elements like objects at the beginning of the sentence but that is much rarer. Most of the times, a time reference would be the most likely element to go in the beginning of the sentence.
2. QUESTIONS
In questions, the conjugated verb (meaning, the verb that corresponds to the subject and will change form accordingly) will always have the subject to follow. The exact position of the verb itself changes only for yes or no questions when the verb takes first position. Let’s look at some examples.
OPTION 1: OPEN QUESTIONS
| Question word | Verb | Subject | Rest |
| Waar | woon | jij? | |
| Waar | ga | jij | naartoe? |
| Hoe | ga | jij | naar het werk? |
| Met wie | werk | jij | samen? |
| Wat | is | haar beroep? | |
| Welke films | vind | je | leuk? |
| Hoe vaak | gaan | jullie | naar de gym? |
OPTION 2: YES/NO QUESTIONS => VERB TAKES 1ST POSITION!
| Verb | Subject | Rest |
| Woon | jij | in België? |
| Kom | jij | uit Brussel? |
| Woont | jouw vader | in Brugge? |
| Werk | jij | met kinderen? |
| Is | zij | een tandarts? |
| Hou | je | van romantische komedies? |
| Gaan | jullie | vaak naar de gym? |
RULE NUMBER 2: EINDGROEP = ALWAYS AT THE END
Whatever other verbs we might want to add to the sentence, they would go into a category which we call “eindgroep”, the end group, literally the final frontier of the sentence. Let’s look at some examples.
OPTION ONE: INFINTIVE
| Subject/Time (/….) | Verb | (Subject) | Rest | Eindgroep |
| Ik | wil | in België | wonen. | |
| Mijn vader | moet | de rekeningen | betalen. | |
| Wij | gaan | vanavond in een restaurant | eten. |
OPTION TWO: SEPARABLE ELEMENT OF SEPARABLE VERBS
| Subject/Time (/….) | Verb | (Subject) | Rest | Eindgroep |
| Ik | sta | in de week altijd om zeven uur | op. | |
| Morgen | kom | ik | om zeven uur op het station | aan. |
| Mijn vriend | doet | na het diner altijd zijn computer | uit. |
OPTION THREE: PARTICIPIUM IN PAST PERFECT TENSE
| Subject/Time (/….) | Verb | (Subject) | Rest | Eindgroep |
| Wij | hebben | gisteren tot 9 uur | gewerkt. | |
| Ik | ben | in het weekend naar de zee | gegaan. | |
| Jullie | hebben | deze week te weinig Nederlands | gestudeerd. |
AT THE END MEANS AT THE END!
I’ve constructed the following examplary, quite radical sentences for you, just to show you that the conjuction of subject and conjugated verb on the left side and the eindgroep on the right side form the absolute and final beginnings and endings of the Dutch sentence. It’s comparable to the flexibility of a pair of pasta tongs in which everything in the middle of the sentence is equivalent to the spaghetti you’re taking out of the pot and holding in between the tongs. This basically means that following sentences are grammatically correct (even though you’d be a bavoon to speak like that, Dutch is weird, but not that weird):
Ik ga morgenavond om zeven uur met de vrienden van mijn oude school in het restaurant naast het huis van mijn ouders in het centrum van de stad dineren.
Ik moet vanmiddag om twaalf uur de vergadering over de economische problemen in het zuiden van Europa organiseren.
EXERCISES
To practice Dutch verb position, check out these exercises on Taalmenu.
