Word
De soep was klaar terwijl ik in de keuken was.
Meaning
The soup was ready while I was in the kitchen.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about De soep was klaar terwijl ik in de keuken was.
Why is the second was at the very end of the sentence?
Because terwijl (while) is a subordinating conjunction. Words like this introduce a dependent clause and push the verb to the very end of that part of the sentence. So instead of the normal order (ik was in de keuken), the verb moves to the back: terwijl ik in de keuken was.
I know tijdens also means "during" or "while". Could I use it here instead of terwijl?
No, because they have different grammatical jobs. Terwijl is used to connect two full clauses, meaning it must be followed by a subject and a verb (like ik was). Tijdens is a preposition that is only followed by a noun, like tijdens de lunch (during lunch).
What happens to the word order if I flip the sentence and start with Terwijl ik in de keuken was?
If you start the sentence with the terwijl clause, that entire clause acts as the first "block" of your main sentence. Because the verb must always be in the second position in a main clause, this triggers inversion. The subject and verb in the main clause swap places: Terwijl ik in de keuken was, was de soep klaar.
Does klaar always translate directly to "ready"?