Grammatica, episode 2: dus, daarom, omdat, want
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EN: Grammatica, episode two. Dutch has four small words for linking a cause to its consequence. Where English just says 'so' and 'because', Dutch makes you choose - based on which direction you're pointing, and on what that choice does to your word order.
EN: Two of them point forward, to the result. First, dus - 'so', or 'therefore'. It's the cousin of English 'thus'. It rains, therefore I stay home.
NL: Het regent, dus ik blijf thuis. <break time="2.5s"/>
NL: Het regent, dus ik blijf thuis.
EN: Listen to the order after dus. Subject first, then verb. Ik blijf. Normal order - nothing moved.
EN: The second forward-pointer is daarom, 'that's why'. Daarom is an adverb - a word that modifies rather than names - and when an adverb starts a Dutch sentence, it flips the verb in front of the subject. That flip is called inversion.
NL: Het regent. Daarom blijf ik thuis. <break time="2.5s"/>
NL: Het regent. Daarom blijf ik thuis.
EN: Blijf ik - not ik blijf. The verb jumped ahead of the subject, because daarom took first place.
EN: Now the other two, the ones pointing backward to the cause. Omdat means 'because', and it's a subordinating word - it demotes its clause, and it throws the verb all the way to the end of that clause.
NL: Ik blijf thuis omdat het regent. <break time="2.5s"/>
NL: Ik blijf thuis omdat het regent.
EN: Regent - rains - sitting at the very end. That tail position is the signature of omdat.
EN: And want also means 'because'. But want is a coordinating word - it joins two equals - and it leaves the verb exactly where it normally sits.
NL: Ik blijf thuis, want het regent. <break time="2.5s"/>
NL: Ik blijf thuis, want het regent.
EN: Here the clause is so short that the verb happens to land in the same place either way. Stretch it out and the difference shows itself:
EN: Omdat ik moe ben - verb last. Want ik ben moe - verb second. So there's your fork. Dus and daarom point at the result. Omdat and want point at the cause. And the word order is the giveaway: omdat buries its verb, want doesn't. Same rain, same staying home. Dutch just makes you say which end you're looking from.
EN: Today's Brueghel proverb.
NL: Wie een kuil graaft voor een ander, valt er zelf in.
NL: Wie een kuil graaft voor een ander, valt er zelf in.
EN: Literally: he who digs a pit for another falls into it himself. Meaning: schemes rebound on the schemer. And it's shaped like today's lesson - wie een kuil graaft is a subordinate clause, so its verb goes to the end, and then comes the consequence. Example:
NL: Hij loog tegen zijn baas, dus nu heeft hij geen werk meer.
EN: He lied to his boss, so now he has no job. Cause, then dus, then consequence.
EN: That's episode two.
NL: Doei doei!