Question 1

How does toch turn this into a "do you?" question?

Accepted Answer

In this sentence, toch is used to ask for confirmation of something the speaker expects to be true. The speaker assumes you don't want a pillow, but wants to double-check. In English, we often do this using tag questions like "...do you?" or "...right?".

Question 2

Why doesn't this question start with the verb?

Accepted Answer

This sentence actually has the word order of a normal statement, starting with the subject (Je) followed by the verb (wilt). Adding the word toch and raising your pitch at the end turns it into a question. The speaker is stating their assumption and using toch to ask if they are correct.

Question 3

Why do we use geen here instead of niet?

Accepted Answer

We use geen because we are negating an indefinite noun (a pillow). If you wanted to say "You don't want the pillow", you would use niet, like this: Je wilt het kussen toch niet? But since it is just "a pillow" (een kussen), the "not a" combines into geen.

Question 4

Is it also correct to say "Je wil toch geen kussen?" without the 't' on the verb?

Accepted Answer

Yes! For the verb willen (to want), both je wil and je wilt are completely correct and widely used. Je wilt is considered slightly more traditional, but you will hear both used interchangeably in everyday Dutch.

Je wilt toch geen kussen?

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