questions in Dutch

There are two types of questions, both in English and in Dutch: open and closed.

Closed questions

Closed questions can only be answered with ‘yes’ (ja) or ‘no’ (nee). Example:

• Does he work? –Yes
• Is she ill? -No

What you’ll notice about English closed questions, is that they are often formed with an auxiliary verb like ‘to do’.

Example:

• He works – Does he work?
• I kiss her – Do I kiss her?

Other times, English applies something called inversion. Example:

•  I will leave – Will I leave?
•  We have done that – Have we done that?

Dutch only applies inversion to form closed questions. Example:

• Jullie zijn klaar – You are done
• Zijn jullie klaar? – Are you done?
• Jij zwemt – You swim
• Zwem jij? – Do you swim?

Open questions

Open questions normally start with a so-called interrogative pronoun like:

• ‘who’ (wie)
• ‘what’ (wat)
• ‘where’ (waar) etc.

Example:

• Wie is dat? – Who is that?
• Wat doe je? – What are you doing?
• Waar kom je vandaan? – Where are you from?