When you want specific information rather than a plain yes or no, you open the question with a question word (a wh-word) and put the finite verb immediately after it. The structure is rock-solid: question word + finite verb + subject, the same verb-second pattern that runs through every Dutch main clause. Get the verb into that second slot and the question is correct; let it drift to the end and you have accidentally built an indirect clause, which is the single most common error here. This page covers the full set of question words and the word order that goes with them.
The question words
| Dutch | English | Asks about |
|---|---|---|
| wie | who | a person |
| wat | what | a thing |
| waar | where | a place |
| wanneer | when | a time |
| waarom | why | a reason |
| hoe | how | a manner / state |
| welke / welk | which | a choice (welke = de-words/plural, welk = het-words) |
| hoeveel | how many / how much | a quantity |
| hoe laat | what time | a clock time |
Two of these need an English-speaker's eye. Hoe ("how") is also how Dutch asks someone's name — Hoe heet je? is literally "How are you called?", not "What is your name?" And hoe laat ("how late") is the fixed way to ask the time, never wat tijd.
The structure: question word + verb + subject
The defining rule is verb-second. The question word fills slot one, the finite verb sits in slot two, and the subject follows. Nothing comes between the question word and the verb.
Waar woon je nu?
Where do you live now?
Wat doe je in het weekend?
What do you do on the weekend?
Hoe heet je eigenlijk?
What's your name, actually? (literally 'how are you called?')
Wanneer begint de film?
When does the film start?
Waarom doe je dat zo?
Why are you doing it like that?
Notice there is no "do" in any of these. As with all Dutch questions, you front the question word and use the real verb; English-style do-support has no place here.
welk vs welke ("which")
"Which" agrees with the noun. Use welk before a singular het-word and welke before a singular de-word or any plural. This mirrors the het/de article split that runs through Dutch.
Welke trui vind je mooier, de blauwe of de groene?
Which sweater do you like better, the blue one or the green one? (de trui → welke)
Welk boek lees je op dit moment?
Which book are you reading right now? (het boek → welk)
Welke schoenen zijn van jou?
Which shoes are yours? (plural → welke)
"What kind of": wat voor (een)
To ask "what kind of," Dutch uses wat voor (often wat voor een in the singular), not plain wat. The little voor here does not mean "for" — it is a fixed part of the construction. The phrase can even split, with voor landing later in the sentence, but the unsplit form is safest for learners.
Wat voor muziek vind je leuk?
What kind of music do you like?
Wat voor een auto heeft hij gekocht?
What kind of car did he buy?
hoeveel and hoe laat
Hoeveel covers both "how many" (count) and "how much" (mass) — Dutch makes no distinction here, unlike English. Hoe laat is the fixed question for the clock.
Hoeveel mensen komen er vanavond?
How many people are coming tonight?
Hoeveel kost dit?
How much does this cost?
Hoe laat is het? — Het is half drie.
What time is it? — It's half past two. (2:30)
When the question word is itself the subject
Usually the subject follows the verb. But when the question word is the subject — when you ask who or what is doing the action — there is no separate subject to invert with, so the order is simply question word + verb + rest, and it looks just like a statement.
Wie heeft mijn telefoon gezien?
Who has seen my phone? ('wie' is the subject — no inversion)
Wat is er gebeurd?
What happened? ('wat' is the subject)
This is the one case where a wh-question and an English wh-question look identical in structure, because English also keeps subject order when who/what is the subject ("Who saw it?").
Common Mistakes
❌ Waar je woont?
Incorrect — verb-final order is for indirect questions. A direct question needs the verb second.
✅ Waar woon je?
Where do you live?
❌ Wat doe je doen vanavond?
Incorrect — no 'do'-support. The real verb already does the work.
✅ Wat doe je vanavond?
What are you doing tonight?
❌ Wat is je naam? — wat soort muziek?
Incorrect for 'what kind of' — use 'wat voor', not 'wat soort' as a question opener.
✅ Wat voor muziek vind je leuk?
What kind of music do you like?
❌ Welk trui vind je mooier?
Incorrect — 'trui' is a de-word, so it takes 'welke'.
✅ Welke trui vind je mooier?
Which sweater do you like better?
❌ Wat tijd begint het?
Incorrect — Dutch asks the clock with 'hoe laat', not 'wat tijd'.
✅ Hoe laat begint het?
What time does it start?
Key Takeaways
- Open with the question word, then put the finite verb second: Waar woon je?, Wat doe je?
- Verb-final order (Waar je woont?) is for indirect questions, not direct ones.
- There is no "do"-support — front the question word and use the real verb.
- Welk goes with singular het-words; welke with de-words and plurals.
- "What kind of" is wat voor (een); "what time" is hoe laat; "how many/how much" is the single word hoeveel.
- When the question word is the subject (Wie belt?), there is no inversion — the order matches a statement.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Dutch Questions: OverviewA1 — How Dutch asks: yes/no questions put the finite verb first, wh-questions put the question word first with the verb second, tags append hè/toch — and there is no English-style 'do'-support anywhere.
- Yes/No Questions: Verb-First InversionA1 — Dutch yes/no questions move the finite verb to first position (Werk je? Heb je honger?), with no 'do'-support — and the verb drops its -t before jij/je (jij werkt → werk jij?).
- Asking with Prepositions: Waarop, Waarmee, Met wieB1 — How Dutch asks 'with what / about what / for what': for things, preposition + wat fuses into waar + preposition and usually splits (Waar wacht je op?); for persons, it stays preposition + wie (Met wie ga je?).
- Indirect Questions: Embedded and Verb-FinalB1 — How a direct question becomes an embedded (indirect) one: it loses its question inversion and goes verb-final like any subordinate clause, with 'of' (never 'als') for indirect yes/no questions and the question word kept for wh-questions.
- Verb-Second (V2) in Main ClausesA1 — The backbone of Dutch main clauses — the finite verb sits in the second position, where 'position' means the second constituent, not the second word.