Directions in Dutch put several A2 building blocks to work at once: question words, the imperative (for the actual instructions), a fistful of place prepositions, and — the tricky one — a separable verb that comes apart in the middle of the sentence. Below is a natural exchange between a lost tourist and a helpful passer-by. Read the scene, then work through the notes; by the end you'll be able to both ask the way and understand the answer.
The dialogue
— Pardon, mag ik iets vragen? Waar is het station?
— Excuse me, may I ask something? Where is the station?
— Het station? Dat is niet ver. Ga hier rechtdoor tot het stoplicht.
— The station? That's not far. Go straight ahead here until the traffic light.
— En dan?
— And then?
— Bij het stoplicht sla je linksaf. Neem dan de eerste straat rechts.
— At the traffic light you turn left. Then take the first street on the right.
— Is het ver lopen?
— Is it far to walk?
— Nee hoor, vijf minuten. Het station is naast de bibliotheek, tegenover een groot park.
— Not at all, five minutes. The station is next to the library, opposite a big park.
— Super, hartelijk bedankt!
— Great, thank you very much!
— Geen probleem. Veel succes!
— No problem. Good luck!
What's happening grammatically
Wh-questions: question word, then verb
Waar is het station? follows the wh-question template: the question word waar (where) takes first place, the verb is comes second, the subject het station follows. Same as English order here, but remember there's no do with other verbs either — Waar woon je? (Where do you live?), not "Waar doe je wonen". The verb-second rule from main clauses applies to wh-questions too, with the question word filling slot one.
Waar kan ik een taxi vinden?
Where can I find a taxi? 'Waar' first, modal 'kan' second, infinitive 'vinden' last.
Imperatives give the directions
Instructions come as imperatives — the bare verb stem, no subject: Ga rechtdoor (Go straight), Neem de eerste straat (Take the first street). Dutch builds the imperative just from the stem, and it starts the sentence. This is how every set of directions, recipe step, or sign is phrased.
Loop rechtdoor en steek de brug over.
Walk straight ahead and cross the bridge.
The separable verb afslaan splits apart
Here's the centrepiece. Afslaan means "to turn off (left/right)". It's a separable verb: in a main clause the prefix af detaches and flies to the end of the clause, while the conjugated stem stays in position two. So Bij het stoplicht sla je linksaf literally has sla (second) ... af (last), with linksaf = links + the separated af. The two halves bracket the whole clause.
Sla bij de kerk rechtsaf.
Turn right at the church. 'Sla' up front (imperative), 'af' at the very end.
Je slaat daar linksaf en dan zie je het meteen.
You turn left there and then you'll see it right away. 'Slaat'...'af' bracket the clause.
If you keep afslaan glued together ("je afslaat linksaf"), it sounds clearly wrong to a native ear — the splitting is obligatory in main clauses.
Place prepositions: naast, tegenover, bij, tot
The directions lean on spatial prepositions, and they don't map one-to-one to English:
- naast = next to (naast de bibliotheek)
- tegenover = opposite / across from (tegenover een groot park)
- bij = at / by (bij het stoplicht) — the go-to word for "at a landmark"
- tot = until / up to (tot het stoplicht) — for "go as far as"
Het hotel staat tegenover het station, naast een klein café.
The hotel is opposite the station, next to a small café.
Note een groot park: park is a het-word, singular, indefinite, so the adjective stays bare — groot, no -e. Een klein café follows the same rule.
Why the separable verb trips everyone up
The reason afslaan feels so alien is that English has nothing quite like it. The closest parallel is a phrasal verb such as turn off — and English can split those (turn the light off) — but English never throws the particle all the way to the end of a long clause the way Dutch does, and it never makes the split obligatory. In Dutch, the moment the verb is finite and in a main clause, the prefix must detach and travel to the back, no matter how much material sits in between. So Je slaat bij het tweede stoplicht, naast de supermarkt, linksaf keeps slaat in second position and parks af at the very end, three phrases later. Train your ear to wait for that final particle; it often changes the whole meaning of the verb.
Note the flip side: in a subordinate clause the verb already goes to the end, so the prefix has nowhere to travel and stays attached — ...omdat je daar afslaat (because you turn off there) is one word again. (Add a direction and links simply joins the front: ...omdat je daar linksaf slaat.) So afslaan comes apart in main clauses and stays whole in subordinate ones. The directions you'll hear on the street are almost all main clauses and imperatives, so expect the split.
Loop door tot de brug en steek dan over.
Carry on until the bridge and then cross over. Two separable verbs — 'doorlopen' and 'oversteken' — each with its particle at the end.
Vocab and phrase notes
- rechtdoor = straight ahead; linksaf / rechtsaf = (turn) left / right; links / rechts alone = on the left / right.
- de eerste straat = the first street; ordinals (eerste, tweede, derde) are essential for directions.
- ver = far; Is het ver? / Is het ver lopen? (Is it far to walk?). lopen = to walk (in the Netherlands; in Belgium it can mean "to run").
- Pardon / mag ik iets vragen? — the polite opener before stopping a stranger.
- Nee hoor — a softened "no" with the warm particle hoor; reassuring, not curt.
Common Mistakes
❌ Bij het stoplicht je afslaat linksaf.
Incorrect — the prefix 'af' of a separable verb must go to the end of the clause, not stay attached.
✅ Bij het stoplicht sla je linksaf.
At the traffic light you turn left.
❌ Waar doet het station zijn?
Incorrect — no 'do'-support; just 'Waar is het station?'.
✅ Waar is het station?
Where is the station?
❌ Het station is naast aan de bibliotheek.
Incorrect — 'naast' already means 'next to'; don't add 'aan'.
✅ Het station is naast de bibliotheek.
The station is next to the library.
❌ Ga je rechtdoor tot het stoplicht.
Incorrect for an instruction — the imperative drops the subject: 'Ga rechtdoor', not 'Ga je'.
✅ Ga rechtdoor tot het stoplicht.
Go straight ahead until the traffic light.
❌ Het is tegenover van het park.
Incorrect — 'tegenover' takes the noun directly; no 'van'.
✅ Het is tegenover het park.
It's opposite the park.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Question Words: Wie, Wat, Waar, Wanneer, Waarom, HoeA1 — The Dutch wh-words and the verb-second structure that follows them: question word first, finite verb immediately second (Waar woon je?), never verb-final — that order belongs to indirect questions.
- In, Op, Aan — The Core Place PrepositionsA1 — The three workhorse location prepositions: in (inside an enclosed space), op (on a surface, and 'at' an institution — op school, op het werk, op straat), and aan (attached to or at the edge of — aan de muur, aan tafel, aan zee). Why op and aan refuse to map onto English 'on' and 'at', with full tables of the fixed location phrases you simply have to learn.
- Mistake: Separable Verb ErrorsB1 — Separable verbs split in a main clause (Ik bel je op), rejoin in a subordinate clause (dat ik je opbel), and put ge-/te- INSIDE the verb (opgebeld, op te bellen). English speakers keep them glued together. This page drills every split-and-rejoin error with incorrect→correct pairs.
- Placing Separable Verb ParticlesA2 — Across clause types, the particle of a separable verb lands in a predictable spot: at the very end of a main clause (bel ... op), re-attached to an infinitive (opbellen), and glued back together at the end of a subordinate clause (...dat ik opbel).
- Word Order in Imperatives and with ParticlesB1 — In a command the finite verb comes first, but everything after it still obeys middle-field order — objects, pronouns, separable particles, and softeners all land where they would in any clause.