Question 1

The lesson is about behalve (except). How is the noun uitzondering (exception) used if I want to say "with the exception of"?

Accepted Answer

You can use the phrase met uitzondering van. For example, Iedereen was er, met uitzondering van Jan (Everyone was there, with the exception of Jan). This means exactly the same thing as using the preposition from this lesson: Iedereen was er, behalve Jan.

Question 2

Why is it geen uitzondering instead of niet een uitzondering?

Accepted Answer

In Dutch, when you negate a noun that has an indefinite article (een) or no article at all, you must use geen (no / not a). Because the positive statement is wij maken een uitzondering (we make an exception), the negative form automatically becomes wij maken geen uitzondering.

Question 3

Why do we use deze for "this rule" instead of dit?

Accepted Answer

The word for rule is a de-word (de regel). For de-words, "this" always translates to deze. If you were talking about a het-word, like het probleem (the problem), you would use dit, as in dit probleem (this problem).

Question 4

How would the sentence change if we connected the two parts with omdat (because) instead of a semicolon?

Accepted Answer

If you combine the two clauses with omdat, the second part becomes a subordinate clause, which pushes the verb to the very end: Wij maken geen uitzondering, omdat deze regel strikt is. If you used want (which also means because), the word order stays exactly the same as in the original sentence: Wij maken geen uitzondering, want deze regel is strikt.

Wij maken geen uitzondering; deze regel is strikt.

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