Breakdown of Ik mailde hem omdat de website offline was.
ik
I
zijn
to be
hem
him
omdat
because (subordinating)
offline
offline
mailen
to email
de website
the website
Questions & Answers about Ik mailde hem omdat de website offline was.
Why is the past tense mailde and not mailte?
Even though mailen is an English loanword, it follows standard Dutch conjugation rules. To form the past tense, we take the stem mail. The final letter is 'l'. Because 'l' is not a voiceless consonant (meaning it is not in the mnemonic 't kofschip or soft ketchup), we add -de instead of -te.
Is it natural to use the English word offline in Dutch?
Yes, it is completely standard. Dutch has fully adopted offline and online for internet and technology contexts. While you could technically describe the situation using Dutch phrases like niet verbonden or uit de lucht (off the air), using the loanword offline is by far the most natural and common choice.
Why does the verb was jump to the very end of the sentence?
This happens because of the word omdat (because). It is a subordinating conjunction, which introduces a dependent clause. As a refresher: in Dutch dependent clauses, all verbs are pushed to the very end. That is why was comes after offline.
How would the word order change if I used want instead of omdat?
Both words translate to "because", but want is a coordinating conjunction, which means it connects two main clauses without changing the word order. If you used want, the verb would stay in the normal second position: Ik mailde hem want de website was offline.
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