Breakdown of Ik wil die brief vandaag schrijven.
ik
I
vandaag
today
willen
to want
die
that / those (de-words and plurals)
Questions & Answers about Ik wil die brief vandaag schrijven.
Why is schrijven at the very end of the sentence instead of right after wil?
This is the Verb Bracket rule in action! When you use a modal verb like willen (to want), the conjugated verb (wil) takes the normal second position in the sentence. The main action verb (schrijven) gets pushed all the way to the end. They form a bracket around the rest of the information.
Wait, doesn't wil mean 'will'?
It looks just like the English word, but they are false friends! The Dutch verb willen (and its form wil) actually means to want. If you want to say 'will' to talk about the future, you would use a completely different Dutch verb: zullen.
Could I put vandaag earlier in the sentence?
Yes, you can! Time words like vandaag (today) are very flexible in Dutch. A specific object like die brief can come before the time, but placing the time word right after the first verb (Ik wil vandaag die brief schrijven) is also a very natural and common word order.
Why is it die brief instead of dat brief?