Learn Hardcore Dutch: Wij nemen de metro naar het centrum omdat het sneller is dan lopen. - We take the subway to the centre because it's faster than walking.

Both wij and we are first-person-plural pronouns. Wij is the full form and is used for emphasis or in more formal contexts; we is the reduced, unstressed form you hear in everyday speech. So you can perfectly say we nemen de metro naar het centrum… without changing the meaning.

What does nemen mean, and why is it in the second position in the first clause?

nemen means “to take.” Dutch main clauses follow V2 (“verb-second”) word order: the finite verb must appear in position two. Here the subject wij is the first element, so nemen comes right after it.

Why is it de metro instead of het metro?

Dutch nouns belong to two classes: de-words (common gender) and het-words (neuter). Metro is a common-gender noun, so it takes the definite article de.

Why is it het centrum and not de centrum?

Centrum is a neuter noun (a het-word), hence it takes het. You’ll need to learn the article together with the noun (just like “the house,” “het huis,” versus “de stoel” for “the chair”).

What role does omdat play, and how does it affect word order?

omdat is a subordinating conjunction meaning “because.” In subordinate clauses Dutch uses SOV (subject–object–verb) order, so the finite verb normally goes to the very end of the clause.

Example without extra verbs:
Ik blijf thuis omdat ik moe ben.
…omdat ik moe ben.

Here we have a comparative phrase with an extra (non-finite) verb, so the finite verb still comes after all other verbs in the clause’s verb cluster.

Can I use want instead of omdat, and what’s the difference?

Yes: want also means “because,” but it’s a coordinating conjunction. That means it does not change the normal V2 word order. Compare:
We nemen de metro naar het centrum, want het is sneller dan lopen.

Here is stays in second position after want.

How do you form the comparative sneller, and why do you need dan?

For most one-syllable adjectives (like snel) you add -er to form the comparative: sneller (“faster”). In Dutch comparisons you introduce what you compare to with dan (“than”), just like in English.

Why is lopen (the infinitive) used after dan, instead of saying “than we walk”?

You’re comparing taking the metro with the action of walking in general. In Dutch you can compare actions by using the bare infinitive (lopen) rather than a full clause with its own subject and finite verb.

What does the pronoun het refer to in omdat het sneller is…?

That het is a neuter “dummy” pronoun standing in for the entire idea of “taking the metro to the centre.” In the subordinate clause you need a subject, and het picks up the fact that wij nemen de metro… is faster.