Learn Dutch: Waarover schrijf jij het verhaal? - What are you writing the story about?

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?