To compare a situation to a model — it looks as if it's raining, do it the way I say, the older he got, the quieter he became — Dutch reaches for a small family of subordinating conjunctions of comparison and manner: alsof (as if), zoals (as / the way), and naarmate (as / to the extent that). They differ sharply in meaning — alsof introduces a hypothetical, often unreal comparison; zoals a factual one; naarmate a proportional one — but they share one structural fact: like every Dutch subordinator, they send the verb to the end of their clause (see Verb-Final Order in Subordinate Clauses). Getting that word order right is what makes these clauses sound native, and it is exactly where English speakers slip.
Alsof: "as if," and usually unreal
Alsof = as if / as though. It introduces a comparison to a hypothetical situation — one that is typically not actually the case. The clause it heads is subordinate, so its finite verb goes to the very end. This is the trap: English keeps normal order after "as if" ("as if it is raining"), but Dutch buries the verb (alsof het regent, literally "as if it rains").
Het lijkt alsof het regent.
It looks as if it's raining. After 'alsof', the verb 'regent' drops to the end — not 'alsof het regent het' or 'alsof regent het'.
Hij doet alsof hij niets gehoord heeft.
He's acting as if he heard nothing. The whole cluster 'gehoord heeft' sits at the end of the alsof-clause.
Ze keek me aan alsof ik gek was.
She looked at me as if I were crazy. 'was' lands last; and the past tense flags the counterfactual — I'm not actually crazy.
The counterfactual flavour often shows up in the tense: Dutch, like English, tends to back-shift into the past or use zou to underline that the comparison is contrary to fact. Alsof ik gek was ("as if I were crazy") uses the past was precisely because I am not crazy.
Hij geeft het geld uit alsof hij rijk zou zijn.
He spends money as if he were rich. 'zou zijn' at the end marks it as plainly counterfactual — he isn't rich.
Zoals: "as / the way," and factual
Zoals = as / like / the way (that). Where alsof compares to something unreal, zoals compares to something real and given — the way things actually are, were, or were said. It too is a subordinator and sends its verb to the end, though many zoals-clauses are short and the verb-final order is easy to miss.
Doe het zoals ik zeg.
Do it the way I say. 'zoals ik zeg' — the verb 'zeg' is at the end of its (short) clause; the comparison is to a real instruction.
Het ging precies zoals we het gepland hadden.
It went exactly as we'd planned it. 'gepland hadden' clusters at the end — and the situation it compares to is factual.
Zoals ik al zei, de winkel is morgen dicht.
As I already said, the shop is closed tomorrow. A fronted zoals-clause ('zoals ik al zei') with 'zei' last; note the main clause then inverts after the comma.
Zoals can also stand right before a noun phrase, where it means "such as / like" and introduces an example rather than a clause — there is no verb to send anywhere:
Talen zoals Nederlands en Duits zijn verwant.
Languages such as Dutch and German are related. Here 'zoals' introduces examples, not a clause — no verb-final question arises.
Zoals vs als: the classic confusion
English uses "like" and "as" loosely; Dutch keeps zoals (for "the way / such as," a real comparison of manner) distinct from als (used in comparisons of equality — net zo groot als, "just as big as" — and meaning "when/if" as a conjunction). A frequent error is reaching for als where zoals is needed, or vice versa.
Doe het zoals ik, niet als een beginner.
Do it like me (the way I do), not like a beginner. 'zoals ik' = the manner I use; the comparison of manner needs 'zoals', not bare 'als'.
Hij is net zo lang als ik.
He's just as tall as I am. Equality comparison uses 'als' (with 'net zo'), NOT 'zoals' — these are different constructions.
Naarmate: "as / to the extent that," proportional
Naarmate = as / in proportion as / to the extent that. It links two developments that rise or fall together: as one thing increases, so does the other. It is the Dutch equivalent of English "the more... the more..." in its subordinating form, and it too is verb-final.
Naarmate hij ouder werd, werd hij rustiger.
As he got older, he grew calmer. The naarmate-clause sends 'werd' to the end; the main clause then inverts ('werd hij rustiger').
Naarmate de avond vorderde, werden de gesprekken serieuzer.
As the evening wore on, the conversations grew more serious. Proportional pairing: two things developing in step; 'vorderde' is clause-final.
De druk neemt toe naarmate de deadline dichterbij komt.
The pressure increases as the deadline gets closer. Here the naarmate-clause follows the main clause; 'komt' is still last.
Naarmate is somewhat formal and is at home in writing and careful speech (academic, journalistic). In casual speech you might instead hear the hoe..., hoe... construction (hoe ouder hij werd, hoe rustiger hij werd), which expresses the same proportional idea.
Dan dat: after a comparative
When a comparison after a comparative pits one whole clause against another — "rather X than (that) Y" — Dutch can link the second clause with dan dat ("than that"), and, dat being a subordinator, that clause goes verb-final. You meet it mostly in the liever … dan dat … frame and in eerder … dan dat … ("X rather than Y").
Ik blijf liever thuis dan dat ik in die regen ga fietsen.
I'd rather stay home than cycle in that rain. The second clause runs verb-final after 'dan dat': 'ga fietsen' last.
Het lijkt eerder of hij het vergeten is dan dat hij het expres deed.
It seems more like he forgot it than that he did it on purpose. 'deed' is clause-final after 'dan dat'.
Note that when dan simply joins two noun phrases or pronouns, you do not add dat: groter dan ik, meer dan tien. And when dan is followed by an ordinary subject + verb, plain dan (without dat) is the careful-Dutch default: Hij heeft meer gedaan dan ik had verwacht. The extra dat is reserved for the contrastive liever/eerder … dan dat … frame above — elsewhere it is widely considered redundant.
Common Mistakes
The single biggest error across this whole family is leaving the verb in its main-clause position instead of sending it to the end — the English habit of keeping ordinary order after "as if / as / the way."
❌ Het lijkt alsof het regent buiten nu.
Word order is off — fine here actually, but learners often write 'alsof het regent het' or front the verb. Keep the finite verb last: 'alsof het buiten regent'.
✅ Het lijkt alsof het buiten regent.
It looks as if it's raining outside. Verb 'regent' at the end of the alsof-clause.
❌ Hij doet alsof hij heeft niets gehoord.
Incorrect — the finite 'heeft' is left in second position. Both verbs go to the end: 'alsof hij niets gehoord heeft'.
✅ Hij doet alsof hij niets gehoord heeft.
He's acting as if he heard nothing.
❌ als of het waar is
Incorrect — 'alsof' is one word, not 'als of'. (Separate 'of' is the 'whether/or' conjunction, a different word.)
✅ alsof het waar is
as if it were true.
❌ Doe het als ik zeg.
Wrong conjunction — a comparison of manner needs 'zoals', not bare 'als': 'Doe het zoals ik zeg'. ('als ik zeg' would read as 'when I say').
✅ Doe het zoals ik zeg.
Do it the way I say.
❌ Naarmate hij werd ouder, hij werd rustiger.
Two errors: the naarmate-clause keeps verb-final ('werd' last), and the main clause must invert after it: 'Naarmate hij ouder werd, werd hij rustiger'.
✅ Naarmate hij ouder werd, werd hij rustiger.
As he got older, he grew calmer.
Key Takeaways
- alsof = "as if," introducing a hypothetical / counterfactual comparison; verb-final, often back-shifted to past or zou to mark unreality. One word, never als of.
- zoals = "as / the way / such as," a factual comparison of manner or a list of examples; verb-final when it heads a clause.
- naarmate = "as / to the extent that," a proportional pairing (two things changing together); verb-final, somewhat formal — casual speech often uses hoe..., hoe....
- dan dat appears in the contrastive liever/eerder … dan dat … frame ("rather X than that Y," verb-final); plain dan is the default before a noun, pronoun, or an ordinary subject + verb. "Too X to Y" is te … om … te, never dan dat.
- All three conjunctions are subordinators, so the finite verb goes to the end of their clause — the chief place English speakers go wrong.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Subordinating Conjunctions and Verb-Final OrderA2 — The single rule behind every Dutch subordinate clause: the conjunction sends the finite verb to the end — plus the inversion that follows when the clause comes first.
- Comparative Clauses: Dan, Als, Hoe...HoeB2 — Clausal comparison in Dutch — 'dan' for inequality after a comparative, 'net zo...als' for equality, and the correlative 'hoe...hoe / hoe...des te' construction where word order is the whole point.
- Of vs Als: 'If' = Whether or Condition?B1 — English 'if' does two jobs that Dutch keeps strictly apart. Of is 'whether' — it introduces an indirect yes/no question ('Ik weet niet of hij komt'). Als is 'if' in the conditional sense — it introduces a real condition ('Als het regent, blijf ik thuis'). The test is simple: if you could swap 'if' for 'whether', use of; if it states a condition, use als. This page gives the rule, head-to-head pairs, and the errors English speakers make most.
- Verb-Final Order in Subordinate ClausesA2 — After a subordinating conjunction, relative pronoun, or question word, the entire verb cluster — including the finite verb — moves to the end of the clause.
- The Comparative (-er)A2 — How Dutch forms the comparative with -er, why -r adjectives insert -d- (duurder), and why 'than' must be dan, not als, after a comparative.