Asking Questions about Things
When you want to ask a question about an object using a preposition—like "What are you painting on?" or "What are you crafting with?"—Dutch does something unique. You cannot combine wat (what) directly with a preposition.
Instead, wat transforms into waar (where), and the preposition attaches to the end of it to form a single compound word.
Waarmee (With what)
To ask "with what," you combine waar + met. Note that the preposition met changes to mee when it attaches to the end of a word like this.
| What are you crafting with? | Waarmee knutsel jij? |
| What do you cut the paper with? | Waarmee knip jij het papier? |
Waarop and Waarover
Most other prepositions attach to waar without changing their spelling. For example, waar + op becomes waarop (on what), and waar + over becomes waarover (about what).
| What are you drawing on with the pencil? | Waarop teken jij met het potlood? |
| What are you writing the story about? | Waarover schrijf jij het verhaal? |
Indirect Questions
These combination words are not just for direct questions. You can also use them to introduce indirect questions in the middle of a sentence (e.g., "I do not know with what..."). Because this creates a subordinate clause, it pushes the conjugated verb to the very end of the sentence.
| I do not know what the girl is cutting with. | Ik weet niet waarmee het meisje knipt. |
| Do you know what we are going to paint on later? | Weet u waarop wij straks gaan schilderen? |
