Breakdown of Waarover schrijf jij het verhaal?
jij
you
het verhaal
the story
schrijven
to write
waarover
about what
Questions & Answers about Waarover schrijf jij het verhaal?
Why do we use Waarover instead of translating 'About what' literally as Over wat?
In Dutch, when you combine a preposition like over with wat (what) to ask a question about a thing, they merge into a single word starting with waar-. So over + wat becomes waarover. Using over wat sounds unnatural to Dutch ears when asking about things, though it is used when asking about people (e.g., 'about who').
Can I split Waarover into two parts in this sentence?
Yes! It is actually very common in spoken Dutch to split these combined words. You can say Waar schrijf jij het verhaal over? The waar stays at the beginning of the question, and the preposition over moves to the end of the sentence.
Why does the verb schrijf come right after Waarover?
In Dutch question sentences that start with a question word (or a combined word like Waarover), the verb must take the second position. The subject (jij) then immediately follows the verb, which is why the normal subject-verb order is inverted here.
Why use jij instead of je in this sentence?
Using jij puts a little extra emphasis on 'you'. It asks what you are writing about, perhaps in contrast to what someone else is writing about. If you just want to ask a casual, neutral question, you can use the unstressed je instead.
Learn Waarover schrijf jij het verhaal and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free