En, maar, of, want and dus: Dutch coordinating conjunctions

You've learned the V2 rule, and you've learned that small words like omdat and dat send the verb to the end of the clause. Now every linking word looks suspicious. Does the verb move after en? After maar? Good news: with Dutch coordinating conjunctions, the word order stays the same as in two separate sentences. There are five of them, and you only have to learn one small special case.

Dutch coordinating conjunctions: the short list

A coordinating conjunction is a linking word that joins two clauses of equal weight. Each clause could stand alone as its own sentence. Linguists call these main clauses.

Compare that with words that send the verb to the end, like omdat ("because") or dat ("that"). Those words make the second clause depend on the first one. That's a different group, and this article only touches it briefly.

The five words in this group:

• en means "and"
• maar means "but"
• of means "or"
• want means "because" or "for"
• dus means "so"

Learn them as one set. If you see one of these five between two clauses, you can build the second clause as a normal sentence. Subject first, then verb. Or another element first, then the verb, then the subject. You already know how to do both.

The core rule: nothing moves

After en, maar, of and want, the next clause is a normal main clause. The linking word doesn't change it.

Ik werk in Rotterdam en mijn vriendin werkt in Delft.

I work in Rotterdam and my girlfriend works in Delft.

Ik wil komen, maar ik heb geen tijd.

I want to come, but I don't have time.

Wil je thee of wil je koffie?

Do you want tea, or do you want coffee?

Ik blijf thuis, want het regent.

I'm staying home, because it's raining.

Look at the second clause in each one. Mijn vriendin werkt. Ik heb. Wil je. Het regent. The verb is in second position every time. The same clause would look exactly like this on its own. That's the whole idea.

A small note on commas. Dutch usually puts a comma before maar, want and dus when they join two clauses. Before en, there's usually no comma if the clauses are short. This is a style point, so don't worry about it too much.

Why en, maar, of and want don't count as a position

Here's the part that confuses people. In the V2 rule, the verb must be the second thing in the clause. So you might think a word like maar is the first thing, and the verb must come right after it.

That's not how it works. These four words stand outside the clause. They don't use up position one. The clause that follows gets its own V2 rule, as if it started fresh. (Dus is the exception, and it gets its own section below.)

So if the second clause starts with something other than the subject, the verb still comes second, and the subject goes after it. This is the inversion you already know.

Ik werk vandaag thuis, maar morgen ga ik naar kantoor.

I'm working from home today, but tomorrow I'm going to the office.

Break it down:

• maar is the linking word. It's outside the clause.
• morgen is position one ("tomorrow").
• ga is position two, the verb.
• ik comes after the verb, because morgen took the first spot.

Here's another one, with a place word first.

We gaan niet naar buiten, want buiten is het koud.

We aren't going outside, because it's cold outside.

Buiten is first, then is, then het. Same thing. The word want just sits in front and lets the clause do its normal job.

Dropping the repeated subject

With en and maar, you can leave out the second subject when it's the same person as in the first clause. English does this too ("I came home and ate").

Ik kom thuis en ik eet.

I come home and I eat.

Ik kom thuis en eet.

I come home and eat.

Both are correct. The shorter version sounds smoother when the two actions follow each other. Keep the subject if you want to stress it, or if the sentence is long and gets hard to follow.

Dus word order in Dutch: two patterns

Dus is the special one. It means "so", and it can work in two ways.

Het regent, dus ik blijf thuis.

It's raining, so I'm staying home.

Het regent, dus blijf ik thuis.

It's raining, so I'm staying home.

In the first sentence, dus works like the other four. It joins two clauses, and the second one has normal order: ik blijf. In the second sentence, dus works like an adverb and takes position one. The verb is still in second position, but now the subject comes after the verb: blijf ik. So you get inversion.

Both are correct. The version with inversion is very common, especially in writing. The version without it is common in speech. You'll hear and read both, so don't treat either one as a mistake.

What never happens is the verb going to the end. After dus, you won't see dus ik thuis blijf ("so I at home stay", which is wrong). That's the subordinate pattern, and dus isn't part of that group.

Dus can also sit in the middle of a clause, like an ordinary adverb.

Ik blijf dus thuis.

So I'm staying home.

One more honest note. Dus is easy to overuse. If every sentence starts with dus, the text starts to sound like a list of conclusions. Use it when you really mean "as a result".

Want and omdat: the pair people mix up

Both words can mean "because". They don't behave the same way. Want is a coordinator, so nothing moves. Omdat is a subordinator, so the verb goes to the end. This pair has its own full article, so here's just the short version.

In the right column, the verbs (regent, heb geslapen) move to the end. In the left column, they stay where they'd be anyway.

If someone asks Waarom? ("Why?") and you want to answer with a short sentence, omdat is the one you use: Omdat het regent. ("Because it's raining.") That's the usual choice for a short answer to waarom.

Where English speakers go wrong

Common mistake: sending the verb to the end after want. Learners who have just practiced verb-final order tend to apply it to everything. You might write Ik blijf thuis, want het regent correctly, but then write Ik ben moe, want ik slecht heb geslapen ("I'm tired, because I slept badly"). That last sentence is wrong. The verb heb should stay in second position: want ik heb slecht geslapen.

A good test: ask yourself if the second clause could be a complete sentence on its own. Ik heb slecht geslapen ("I slept badly"). Yes, it can. So no verb movement.

The second mistake goes the other way. After maar, learners sometimes think the verb must come right after the conjunction and write Ik wil komen, maar heb ik geen tijd ("I want to come, but I don't have time"). That's incorrect. The subject is in position one here, so it stays there: maar ik heb geen tijd. Inversion only happens when something other than the subject takes position one, like morgen in the example above.

Edge cases worth knowing

Heads up: of has two jobs. As a coordinator, it means "or", and nothing moves: Wil je thee of wil je koffie? ("Do you want tea or do you want coffee?"). But of also means "whether" or "if" in an indirect question. In that job, it's a subordinator, and the verb goes to the end.

Ik weet niet of hij komt.

I don't know whether he's coming.

Same word, different grammar. The meaning tells you which one it is. "Or" between two options is a coordinator. "Whether" after verbs like weten (know) or vragen (ask) is a subordinator.

You'll also see of... of ("either... or") and zowel... als ("both... and"). They're related, but they're a separate topic, and this article doesn't cover them.

Putting it together

1. The five coordinating conjunctions are en, maar, of, want and dus.
2. After them, build a normal main clause. The verb is in second position.
3. En, maar, of and want don't count as position one. If another element starts the clause, the verb comes second and the subject follows.
4. With en and maar, you can drop a repeated subject.
5. Dus works two ways. In dus ik blijf, it behaves like the other four. In dus blijf ik, it takes position one, so the subject comes after the verb. Never with the verb at the end.
6. Want keeps the order. Omdat sends the verb to the end.
7. Of meaning "whether" is a different case, and the verb goes to the end.

Go practice this

Take two short sentences from your own day, like Ik ben moe ("I'm tired") and Ik wil niet koken ("I don't want to cook"). Join them with each of the five words, and say the result out loud. Some will sound odd. That's useful, because you'll hear which ones make sense.

Then write three sentences where the second clause starts with a time or place word, like morgen ("tomorrow"), vandaag ("today") or thuis ("at home"), after maar or en. Check that the verb is second and the subject follows it.

Next time you read or hear Dutch, listen for dus. Notice if the verb comes right after it or if the subject does. You'll find both patterns quickly.

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