Yes/No Questions: Verb-First Inversion | Dutch Grammar

A yes/no question is one you can answer with ja or nee. Dutch forms it with a single move: take the finite verb out of its usual second slot and put it in first position, ahead of the subject. That is the entire rule — there is no helper verb, no rearranging, and definitely no equivalent of English "do." This page walks through that move, the everyday pronoun shifts that come with it, and one spelling quirk that catches every learner: the verb loses its -t when it lands in front of jij or je.

The move: finite verb to the front

In a statement the conjugated verb sits in second position: Je werkt hard ("you work hard"). To make a yes/no question, lift that verb to the very front and let the subject slide in behind it.

Werk je hard?

Do you work hard? (statement: je werkt → question: werk je)

Heb je honger?

Are you hungry? (literally 'have you hunger?')

Is het koud buiten?

Is it cold outside?

Komen jullie ook naar het feest?

Are you coming to the party too?

The verb that moves is always the finite (conjugated) one. In a simple tense that is the main verb; in a compound tense it is the auxiliary, with the participle or infinitive staying put at the end.

Heb je de e-mail al gelezen?

Have you read the email yet? (auxiliary 'heb' fronts, participle 'gelezen' stays)

Kun je morgen langskomen?

Can you come by tomorrow? (modal 'kun' fronts, infinitive 'langskomen' stays)

No "do"-support — ever

English asks questions by inserting do: "You work" → "Do you work?" Dutch has nothing that corresponds to this. There is no word to translate that do, and inventing one — Doe je werken? — produces broken Dutch that no native speaker would say. The verb you already have is the question once it sits in front.

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Whenever you want to say "Do you...?", throw the "do" away and front the real verb. Do you swim? = Zwem je? — not Doe je zwemmen?

The pronoun shift: jij → je after the verb

Dutch second-person jij has a reduced, unstressed form je. After inversion, when the pronoun follows the verb, speakers almost always use the light form je unless they are deliberately stressing "you (as opposed to someone else)."

Werk je vandaag?

Are you working today? (neutral — reduced 'je')

Werk jij vandaag, of werkt Sander?

Are YOU working today, or is Sander? (stressed 'jij' for contrast)

So je is your default after the verb; reach for jij only when you genuinely want to emphasise who.

The -t trap: jij werkt → werk jij?

Here is the quirk that surprises everyone. In a normal statement, the second-person singular verb ends in -t: jij werkt, jij komt, jij gaat. But when the verb moves in front of jij or je in a question, that -t disappears. The form becomes the bare stem: werk jij?, kom je?, ga je?

Statement	Yes/no question
jij werkt	werk jij? / werk je?
jij komt	kom je?
jij gaat	ga je?
jij vindt	vind je?
jij heet	heet je? (stem already ends in -t, nothing to drop)

The reason is a real rule of Dutch conjugation, not an accident: the -t of the jij-form only appears when the verb stands after the pronoun (as in a statement: jij werkt). When the order flips and the verb comes before je/jij, the ending is dropped and you are left with the plain stem — the same form as ik uses. This drop happens only with jij/je. With every other subject the verb keeps its full ending.

Vind je dit een goed idee?

Do you think this is a good idea? (jij vindt → vind je)

Ga je vanavond mee?

Are you coming along tonight? (jij gaat → ga je)

Heet je echt Maximiliaan?

Is your name really Maximiliaan? (jij heet → heet je — stem already ends in -t)

Contrast the other persons, which keep their endings untouched after inversion:

Werkt hij hier al lang?

Has he worked here long? (hij werkt → werkt hij — '-t' stays)

Werken jullie samen aan dit project?

Are you working together on this project? (jullie werken — full ending stays)

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The -t drops only for jij/je, and only because the verb now sits in front of the pronoun. Jij werkt → werk je? With hij/zij/het the -t always stays: werkt hij?

Answering: ja, nee — and jawel

You answer a yes/no question with ja (yes) or nee (no). Dutch also has a special positive answer to a negative question — jawel — which contradicts the negation ("yes I do / yes it is," against the expectation of "no"). This has its own page, but it is worth knowing it exists from the start.

Kom je niet? — Jawel, ik kom zo.

Aren't you coming? — Yes I am, I'm coming in a moment. (jawel contradicts the negative)

Common Mistakes

❌ Doe je werken op zondag?

Incorrect — no 'do'-support. Front the real verb.

✅ Werk je op zondag?

Do you work on Sunday?

❌ Werkt jij hier?

Incorrect — before jij/je the verb drops its -t.

✅ Werk jij hier?

Do you work here?

❌ Komt je vanavond?

Incorrect — 'jij komt' loses the -t before je: 'kom je'.

✅ Kom je vanavond?

Are you coming tonight?

❌ Werk hij hier?

Incorrect — the -t drops ONLY for jij/je. With hij the -t stays: 'werkt hij'.

✅ Werkt hij hier?

Does he work here?

❌ Je hebt honger? (als neutrale vraag)

Incorrect as a neutral question — keeping statement order reads as surprise. Invert the verb.

✅ Heb je honger?

Are you hungry?

Key Takeaways

Form a yes/no question by moving the finite verb to first position: Werk je?, Heb je honger?, Is het koud?
There is no "do"-support in Dutch — never insert a helper verb.
The unstressed je is the default after the verb; use jij only to emphasise who.
The -t drops before jij/je when the verb is fronted: jij werkt → werk je? This happens only with jij/je; hij/zij/het keep the -t (werkt hij?).
Answer with ja/nee, and use jawel to give a positive answer that contradicts a negative question.

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