LESSON NOTES

Learn Dutch in Three Minutes #25

Asking “Why” in Dutch

CONTENTS
2 Grammar

# 25
COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
GRAMMAR

The focus of this lesson is asking "Why" in Dutch

Topic 1: How to use the question word "why"

Sentence from the lesson:

Waarom ben je niet op werk vandaag?
"Why aren’t you at the office today?"

1. Let’s break down this question:

Waarom, which is the translation of "Why" in Dutch.
ben is the present tense of the verb zijn, when you’re asking a question.
je is the word for "you".
Niet, which is "not".
op werk means "at work"
vandaag which is "today"

2. In Dutch, waarom is the exact translation of "Why", and it’s used to ask the reason for
something.
For example:
Waarom ben je laat vandaag?
"Why are you late today?"
Here, he uses "Why" in order to get explanations and reasons.

Topic 2: Other usages of waarom

Sentence from the lesson:

Waarom denk je dat?
"Why do you think that?"

1. Let’s look at some other uses for waarom. If someone says something you don’t
agree with, you can tell them:
Waarom denk je dat?
"Why do you think that?"

DUT CHPOD101.COM LEARN DUT CH I N T HREE MI NUT ES #25 - AS KI NG “WHY” I N DUT CH 2

2. If you are upset about the train being late you can ask someone:
Waarom is de trein laat?
"Why is the train late?"
That actually happens very often in the Netherlands!

3. The answer to these questions could then easily be:

Ik weet niet waarom.
"I don’t know why."

Language Tip!

A famous expression in the Netherlands is Waarom niet? which means, as in English, "Why
not?" You can use it to accept a proposition if you agree. Or, if it was not planned in advance.
For example if a friend asks you suddenly "Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?" You can
answer Waarom niet? "Why not?"

DUT CHPOD101.COM LEARN DUT CH I N T HREE MI NUT ES #25 - AS KI NG “WHY” I N DUT CH 3