questions in Dutch
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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?