Word order exercises Wiki Dutch Word Order (EN)

An open question begins with an interrogative pronoun: who, what, where, etc.

In Dutch, open questions are formed in the same way as in English:

• We add an interrogative word at the beginning of the sentence
• We invert the finite form (subject and finite verb switch places)

The affirmative sentence "You can learn to play the violin" can become:

• "When can you learn to play the violin?"
• "How can you learn to play the violin?"
• "Where can you learn to play the violin?"

In Dutch:

• "Wanneer kun* je viool leren spelen?"
• "Hoe kun je viool leren spelen?"
• "Waar kun je viool leren spelen?"

(*) Recall that we drop t from the stem if inversion takes place with je/jij. Thus, jij kunt becomes kun jij.