Breakdown of We hopen jullie eten vanavond mee.
jullie
you (plural)
vanavond
tonight
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
hopen
to hope
Questions & Answers about We hopen jullie eten vanavond mee.
Why isn't there a dat (that) in this sentence, and why is the word order different?
In casual spoken Dutch, you can often drop the word dat after verbs of thought, speech, or emotion, such as hopen (to hope). When you do this, the second part of the sentence behaves like a normal main clause instead of a subordinate clause. That's why the verb eten moves to the second position instead of going to the very end. If you kept the dat, it would be: We hopen dat jullie vanavond mee-eten.
Why is the word mee sitting at the very end by itself?
It is the prefix of the separable verb mee-eten (to eat along/join for a meal). Because the speaker dropped dat, the second half of the sentence reverted to standard main-clause word order. Just like in any main clause, the conjugated verb (eten) takes the second position, and the separable prefix (mee) gets kicked to the very end of the sentence.
Is it considered bad grammar to drop dat like this?
In formal writing, yes, it is often viewed as overly colloquial or incorrect. You should stick to using dat (and the resulting verb-at-the-end word order) in professional emails or essays. However, in spoken Dutch or casual texts with friends, leaving it out is incredibly common and sounds perfectly natural.
Can I use this same trick to drop of (if/whether)? For example, dropping it in Ik vraag me af of...?