Learn Dutch: Hoewel de auditie matig was, was haar stem mooi. - Although the audition was mediocre, her voice was beautiful.

This happens because of Dutch word order rules. The sentence begins with a subordinate clause (Hoewel de auditie matig was), which acts as the entire first "block" of the sentence and sends its verb to the end. The main clause must then place its verb in the second position. Therefore, the main clause immediately starts with its verb (was), creating that double was, was.

Does hoewel always push the verb to the end?

Yes! Hoewel (although) is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a dependent clause, which means any verbs inside that specific clause are sent to the very end.

What exactly does matig mean here?

Matig translates to "mediocre", "moderate", or "so-so". It implies the audition was acceptable but definitely not great.

This lesson is about the provisional object het. Why isn't het used here?

There is no provisional het here because the sentence doesn't have a main verb that requires an entire clause as its direct object. If you wanted to practice the lesson topic using this vocabulary, you could say: Ik vond het jammer dat de auditie matig was (I thought it was a pity that the audition was mediocre). In that case, het acts as a placeholder for the dat-clause.