Breakdown of We wachten tot het water kookt.
het water
the water
wachten
to wait
tot
until
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
koken
to boil
Questions & Answers about We wachten tot het water kookt.
Why is the verb kookt at the end of the sentence?
Because tot (until) is a subordinating conjunction. Words like tot, totdat, and terwijl introduce a dependent clause and push the conjugated verb to the very end of that clause. Because this clause is very short (tot het water kookt), the verb just comes right after the subject, which happens to be the end of the sentence.
Could I use totdat instead of tot here?
Yes, absolutely! When used to link two clauses to mean "until," tot and totdat are completely interchangeable. You can say We wachten totdat het water kookt and it means exactly the same thing.
I learned that "to wait for" is wachten op. Why is there no op in this sentence?
You use wachten op when you are waiting for a noun, like a person or an object (for example, We wachten op de bus - We wait for the bus). In this sentence, you aren't waiting for a noun; you are waiting until a new action happens. Therefore, you just use the verb wachten directly followed by the tot clause.
If I flip the sentence and start with Tot het water kookt, what happens to the main clause?
If you put the tot clause at the beginning of the sentence, it counts as the first "block" of information. Because the main verb in Dutch must always be in the second position, the subject and verb of the main clause have to swap places (this is called inversion). The sentence becomes: Tot het water kookt, wachten we.
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