Questions & Answers about Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs.
“Inderdaad” literally means “indeed” and is usually used to:
- Confirm something that was just said:
- A: “Komen jullie straks langs?” – “Are you coming by later?”
- B: “Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs.” – “Yes, indeed, we’re coming by later.”
- Emphasize agreement or strengthen a “yes”.
If you say only “Wij komen straks langs”, you’re just giving the information.
Adding “Inderdaad” makes it feel like: “Yes, that’s right, we will come by later.”
The comma after “Inderdaad” is optional but very common.
- With comma: “Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs.”
This reflects a small pause in speech and looks natural in writing. - Without comma: “Inderdaad wij komen straks langs.”
Grammatically possible, but it feels a bit rushed or less natural.
In practice, when “Inderdaad” stands at the beginning of a sentence as a separate confirmation, Dutch writers almost always use the comma.
Both “wij” and “we” mean “we” in English, but:
- “wij” is the stressed form – used when you want to emphasize who is doing the action.
- “Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs (en niet iemand anders).”
- “we” is the unstressed / neutral form – used in most ordinary sentences:
- “We komen straks langs.”
You can almost always replace “wij” with “we” without changing the basic meaning. The choice mainly affects emphasis and rhythm:
- Neutral: “Inderdaad, we komen straks langs.”
- Emphatic: “Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs.” (stronger focus on we)
“Straks” means “a bit later (today)”, usually later the same day, not right now, but not in the distant future.
It’s close to “later” or “in a little while” rather than “soon” in the vague sense.
Approximate nuances:
- “straks” – later today, in a while (but not immediately)
- “zo meteen / straks meteen” – in a moment, very soon
- “later” – later (could be today or another time; more general)
- “binnenkort” – sometime soon / in the near future (not necessarily today)
So “wij komen straks langs” is like:
“we’ll come by a bit later (today)”, not “we will eventually come by at some unknown future time”.
No, “Wij komen langs straks” is not natural in Dutch.
Typical options are:
- Standard word order:
- “Wij komen straks langs.”
- Time at the beginning (for emphasis):
- “Straks komen wij langs.”
Dutch has a preferred order Time – Manner – Place, and in this kind of verb phrase “straks” (time) normally goes before the separable verb part “langs” when the verb is in second position:
- Correct: “Wij komen straks langs.”
- Incorrect / unnatural: “Wij komen langs straks.”
Here, “komen langs” belongs to the separable verb “langskomen”.
- The base verb: langskomen – “to come by / drop by / visit briefly”.
- In main clauses, separable verbs often split:
- Finite verb in position 2: komen
- Particle at the end: langs
So:
- Infinitive: Wij willen morgen langskomen – “We want to come by tomorrow.”
- Main clause (present): Wij *komen morgen langs* – “We come by tomorrow.”
“langs” by itself can also mean “along / past”, but in “wij komen straks langs” it is part of the verb langskomen, not a separate preposition with its own object.
Using langskomen:
Present (with future meaning):
“Wij komen straks langs.” – We are coming by later (today).Perfect past (we did come by):
“Wij zijn straks langsgekomen.” is not idiomatic, because straks is normally future-oriented.
More natural:- “Wij zijn net langsgekomen.” – We just came by.
- “Wij zijn gisteren langsgekomen.” – We came by yesterday.
Structure: zijn (auxiliary) + langsgekomen (past participle).
Future with zullen:
“Wij zullen straks langskomen.” – We will come by later.
This is grammatically fine, but in everyday speech Dutch prefers the simple present:
“Wij komen straks langs.”
So the original sentence uses the present tense to refer to a future event, which is very common in Dutch (and in English: “We’re coming by later.”).
Dutch, like English, often uses the present tense for planned or scheduled future events:
- “Wij komen straks langs.” – We’re coming by later.
- “Morgen ga ik naar Amsterdam.” – I’m going to Amsterdam tomorrow.
Using “zullen” is also possible, but usually sounds:
- more formal, or
- more neutral / less immediate, or
- more conditional.
Compare:
- “We komen straks langs.” – sounds planned and definite.
- “We zullen straks langskomen.” – also correct, but feels slightly more formal or less conversational.
Yes.
- “We komen straks langs.” is the most natural, neutral version in everyday speech.
- “Wij komen straks langs.” adds emphasis on “we” (maybe contrasting with someone else or correcting a misunderstanding).
In the full sentence:
- “Inderdaad, we komen straks langs.” – Neutral confirmation.
- “Inderdaad, wij komen straks langs.” – Stronger emphasis on we; for example, if someone doubted whether you personally are coming.
It’s basically neutral and can be used in both informal and fairly formal contexts.
A few register notes:
- Inderdaad is slightly more formal or emphatic than just “Ja”, but it is very common in both spoken and written Dutch.
- The pronoun “wij/we” is neutral. The formality level would depend more on how you address the other person (e.g. “u” vs “jij/jullie”) elsewhere in the conversation.
You could say this to:
- friends or family – perfectly fine;
- colleagues or even customers – also fine, especially in spoken language or emails.
In a simple phonetic approximation for English speakers:
- Inderdaad ≈ in-der-DAAT
- Stress on the last syllable: -daad.
- wij ≈ vey (like English “vey” in “Oy vey”)
- It’s a diphthong, similar to English “why” but starting with a v/w-like sound.
- komen ≈ KOH-mun
- Long “o” like in English “cone”, but without the final w-glide.
- straks ≈ straks
- Short a like in British “cup” but a bit more open; final s is sharp.
- langs ≈ lahngs
- ngs like in English “songs”.
Rough IPA (Netherlandic Dutch):
[ˌɪndərˈdaːt | ʋɛi̯ ˈkoːmə(n) strɑks lɑŋs]
(The parentheses in ˈkoːmə(n) indicate that the final /n/ is often very weak or dropped in casual speech.)