Learn Dutch: Mijn oogst mislukt doordat de droogte te lang duurt. - My harvest fails because the drought lasts too long.

In Dutch, doordat is used for an objective cause, meaning a direct physical cause-and-effect where no human decision or reasoning is involved. A drought ruining a harvest is purely a force of nature. If you were giving a reason for a personal decision or motivation, you would usually use omdat.

Why is the verb duurt pushed to the very end of the sentence?

Doordat is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause (a sub-clause). In Dutch sub-clauses, the conjugated verb is always pushed to the end.

I recognize droog in droogte. Is adding -te a standard way to make nouns?

Yes! Adding -te to an adjective is a very common way to turn it into a noun, similar to adding '-ness' or '-th' in English. Droog means 'dry', and droogte means 'drought' or 'dryness'. Another example is groot (big) becoming grootte (size).

Does the word mislukt have the same mis- prefix we use in English?

Yes, the prefix mis- in Dutch means 'wrong' or 'badly', just like in English words such as 'misunderstand'. The base verb here is lukken (to succeed). By adding mis-, it turns into mislukken (to fail).