By B2 you have met all the causal connectors separately. The difficulty is no longer knowing what omdat or dus means — it is keeping six of them straight under pressure, because they fall into three different grammatical classes and each class has its own word order. English hides all of this: one word, "because," covers want / omdat / doordat, and "so" covers dus / daarom / daardoor, so an English speaker has no native instinct for the splits. This page is a consolidation. It assumes you have seen the causal conjunctions page and gives you a single decision procedure: to pick the right connector you answer two questions at once — what relationship (cause or result, reason or mechanism) and which word-order class the connector belongs to.
The two-axis picture
Every connector here lives at the crossing of two axes. Axis 1 (meaning): does the clause give the cause/reason ("because") or the result ("so")? Axis 2 (grammar): is the connector a coordinator (verb stays second), a subordinator (verb to the end), or a conjunctional adverb (it fills the first slot itself, forcing inversion)?
| Connector | Meaning | Class | Word order it triggers |
|---|---|---|---|
| want | because (grounds) | coordinator | verb stays 2nd (V2) |
| omdat | because (reason/motive) | subordinator | verb to the END |
| doordat | because (impersonal cause) | subordinator | verb to the END |
| dus | so / therefore (result) | conj. adverb | inversion when fronted |
| daarom | that's why (result, reason) | conj. adverb | inversion when fronted |
| daardoor | as a result (result, mechanism) | conj. adverb | inversion when fronted |
The left half of the table (want / omdat / doordat) points backward to the cause; the right half (dus / daarom / daardoor) points forward to the result. Read the table as two mirror trios.
The "because" trio: want, omdat, doordat
All three mean "because," but they differ on both axes.
want is the only coordinator. It joins two main clauses, so the verb stays in second position. It takes a comma, cannot begin a sentence, and cannot answer a bare Waarom? It often gives the speaker's grounds for saying something.
Hij is vast thuis, want zijn fiets staat voor de deur.
He must be home, because his bike is out front. (want → verb 'staat' stays 2nd; my grounds for the claim)
omdat is a subordinator giving a reason/motive — something an agent has a reason for. Verb to the end. It can answer Waarom? and can open the sentence.
Ik neem de fiets omdat de trein vertraging heeft.
I'll take the bike because the train is delayed. (my reason → omdat; 'heeft' at the end)
doordat is a subordinator giving an impersonal cause — one event mechanically producing another, no will involved. Verb to the end. It answers Waardoor?
De trein heeft vertraging doordat er een wissel kapot is.
The train is delayed because a switch is broken. (impersonal cause → doordat; 'is' at the end)
Notice the contrast in the last two: the same delay is a doordat-cause (the broken switch produced it) and an omdat-reason (the delay is my ground for choosing the bike). People have reasons; the world has causes.
The "so" trio: dus, daarom, daardoor
These point forward to the result, and all three are conjunctional adverbs — not conjunctions in the strict sense. That matters for word order: an adverb that opens a clause takes the first slot itself, so the verb must come second, before the subject (inversion). This is the single most common error English speakers make here, because English "so/therefore" keeps subject–verb order.
dus = "so / therefore," a logical conclusion. daarom = "that's why," a result that follows from a reason. daardoor = "as a result," a result produced by a mechanism — it is the result-side mirror of doordat.
De trein had vertraging, dus nam ik de fiets.
The train was delayed, so I took the bike. (dus fronts → inversion: verb 'nam' before subject 'ik')
Hij was ziek, daarom is hij niet gekomen.
He was ill, that's why he didn't come. (daarom → inversion: 'is hij', a result following from a reason)
Het had de hele nacht gevroren; daardoor waren de wegen spiegelglad.
It had frozen all night; as a result the roads were like glass. (daardoor → inversion 'waren'; result of a mechanism)
The daarom / daardoor split mirrors omdat / doordat exactly: daarom for a result that follows from a reason/motive, daardoor for a result produced by an impersonal mechanism. If you know which "because" you'd use, you know which "so" to use.
Ze had geen zin, daarom bleef ze thuis.
She didn't feel like it, that's why she stayed home. (motive → daarom mirrors omdat)
Putting both axes together
The whole system collapses into one diagnostic. First decide direction: are you giving the cause (look left: want / omdat / doordat) or the result (look right: dus / daarom / daardoor)? Then decide mechanism vs reason (the -door words for impersonal mechanism, the others for reason/motive). Then the word order is fixed by the class — and you never have to think about it again once you've memorised: want = V2, omdat/doordat = verb-final, dus/daarom/daardoor = inversion when fronted.
Het regende hard, dus we bleven binnen, want buiten was het guur.
It was raining hard, so we stayed in, because it was bleak outside. (dus → inversion-context; want → V2)
Omdat de batterij leeg was, ging mijn telefoon uit; daardoor miste ik je bericht.
Because the battery was dead, my phone switched off; as a result I missed your message. (omdat verb-final → main clause inverts; daardoor → inversion)
Common Mistakes
❌ Hij is thuis, want zijn fiets voor de deur staat.
Wrong — 'want' is a coordinator, so the verb stays 2nd: 'staat voor de deur', not pushed to the end.
✅ Hij is thuis, want zijn fiets staat voor de deur.
He's home, because his bike is out front.
❌ De trein had vertraging, dus ik nam de fiets.
Wrong — fronted 'dus' is a conjunctional adverb and forces inversion: 'dus nam ik', verb before subject.
✅ De trein had vertraging, dus nam ik de fiets.
The train was delayed, so I took the bike.
❌ Hij was ziek, daarom hij is niet gekomen.
Wrong — 'daarom' fills the first slot, so the verb must come second: 'daarom is hij', not 'daarom hij is'.
✅ Hij was ziek, daarom is hij niet gekomen.
He was ill, that's why he didn't come.
❌ Ik blijf thuis doordat ik geen zin heb.
Wrong — a personal motive needs 'omdat'; 'doordat' is only for an impersonal cause-and-effect mechanism.
✅ Ik blijf thuis omdat ik geen zin heb.
I'm staying home because I don't feel like it.
❌ Waarom kom je niet? — Want ik ben moe.
Wrong — 'want' can't begin a sentence and can't answer a bare 'why?'. Use 'omdat' for that.
✅ Waarom kom je niet? — Omdat ik moe ben.
Why aren't you coming? — Because I'm tired.
Key Takeaways
- Sort by two questions at once: cause (want / omdat / doordat) vs result (dus / daarom / daardoor), and which word-order class.
- want = coordinator, verb stays 2nd, no sentence-start, can't answer bare Waarom?
- omdat / doordat = subordinators, verb to the end; omdat = reason/motive, doordat = impersonal mechanism.
- dus / daarom / daardoor = conjunctional adverbs → inversion when fronted; daarom mirrors omdat (reason), daardoor mirrors doordat (mechanism).
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
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- Dutch Conjunctions: OverviewA2 — The three families of Dutch joining words — coordinating, subordinating, and conjunctional adverbs — and the word-order effect each one has on its clause.
- Conjunctional Adverbs: Daarom, Dus, Toch, Echter, BovendienB2 — Words like daarom, dus and echter connect ideas in meaning but are grammatically adverbs — so when they open a clause they force V2 inversion, unlike want (no change) and omdat (verb-final).
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- 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.
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