Learn Hardcore Dutch: Tom heeft haast, daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op. - Tom is in a hurry, therefore he eats the dessert quickly.

haast (in heeft haast) is a noun meaning hurry / haste.
- Tom heeft haast = Tom is in a hurry.
snel is an adverb (or adjective) meaning fast / quickly.
- hij eet … snel op = he eats … quickly.

So:

haast describes Tom’s state (he is in a hurry).
snel describes how he eats (he eats quickly).

What does daarom mean, and how is it different from omdat and dus?

Daarom means (for that reason) / therefore / that’s why.

Tom heeft haast, daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
= Tom is in a hurry, therefore / that’s why he eats the dessert quickly.

Compare:

omdat = because, used to introduce the reason:
- Hij eet het nagerecht snel op, omdat hij haast heeft.
  = He eats the dessert quickly because he is in a hurry.
daarom = therefore / that’s why, introduces the result:
- Hij heeft haast, daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
dus = so, very similar in meaning to daarom and more informal:
- Hij heeft haast, dus hij eet het nagerecht snel op.

So:

omdat = because (reason)
daarom / dus = therefore / so (result)

Why is there a comma before daarom?

Because we have two main clauses:

Tom heeft haast
daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op

They are connected by daarom, which functions like therefore / so. In Dutch, it is normal to put a comma between such clauses:

[Main clause], [connector] [main clause]

So: Tom heeft haast, daarom eet hij … is standard punctuation.

Why does the verb eet come right after daarom?

This is due to the verb-second (V2) rule in Dutch main clauses: the conjugated verb must be in second position.

In the second clause:

First position: daarom
Second position: eet (the finite verb)
Then: hij het nagerecht snel op

So the structure is:

Daarom (1st) eet (2nd) hij het nagerecht snel op (rest)

If you started with the subject instead, you would get Hij eet het nagerecht snel op, which is also correct, but then you would not have daarom at the beginning.

Why is it daarom eet hij and not daarom hij eet?

Again, because of the verb-second rule. In a main clause:

Some element (subject, time, place, connector, etc.) takes the first position.
The conjugated verb must be in second position.
The rest of the sentence follows.

Here the first element is daarom, so the verb eet must come next:

✔ Daarom eet hij … (correct V2 word order)
✘ Daarom hij eet … (wrong in a main clause)

This is different from English, where we say therefore he eats and keep he before eats.

What is the infinitive form of eet … op, and why is op at the end?

The infinitive is opeten (a separable verb).

eten = to eat
opeten = to eat up / to finish eating

In main clauses, separable verbs split: the prefix goes to the end of the clause:

Infinitive: opeten
Present: hij eet het nagerecht op
Past: hij at het nagerecht op
Perfect: hij heeft het nagerecht opgegeten

In the given sentence, snel comes before the particle op, so we get:

… eet hij het nagerecht snel op.

What extra meaning does the prefix op- add to eten?

eten by itself is just to eat.

The prefix op- often means up / completely / finished. So:

eten = to eat
opeten = to eat up, finish eating, eat completely

In the sentence, eet hij het nagerecht snel op implies he finishes the dessert quickly (not just taking one bite).

Can snel go in other positions, like Daarom eet hij snel het nagerecht op?

Yes, Dutch word order allows some flexibility. The following are all possible and natural, with slightly different emphasis:

Daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
– Neutral, slight focus on him finishing it quickly.
Daarom eet hij snel het nagerecht op.
– Slightly more focus on how (quickly) he is eating.
Daarom eet hij het nagerecht op, snel.
– Less common in writing; snel is more like an afterthought.

What you generally cannot do is split op away from the very end in a main clause:

✘ Daarom eet hij het nagerecht op snel. (wrong)

Why is it het nagerecht and not de nagerecht?

In Dutch, every noun has a grammatical gender and takes either de or het as the definite article.

Nagerecht happens to be a het-word:

het nagerecht = the dessert / the sweet course

There is no simple rule you can apply to all nouns to decide between de and het; you usually have to learn the article together with the noun.

Common synonyms:

het nagerecht (neutral; slightly formal)
het toetje (very common, informal)
het dessert (borrowed from French; also common)

Could you say Tom eet het nagerecht snel op omdat hij haast heeft instead? Is that the same?

Yes, that is correct Dutch, but the structure is slightly different:

Tom heeft haast, daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
= He is in a hurry, therefore he eats the dessert quickly.
(Two main clauses: reason → result)
Tom eet het nagerecht snel op, omdat hij haast heeft.
= He eats the dessert quickly, because he is in a hurry.
(Main clause + subordinate clause with omdat)

The meaning is practically the same, just a different way of organizing the information (result first vs. reason first).

Can I use want instead of daarom here?

No, want would change the logical relationship in a wrong way.

want = because (similar to omdat, but it introduces another main clause)

If you said:

Tom heeft haast, want hij eet het nagerecht snel op.

you’d be saying: Tom is in a hurry because he eats the dessert quickly, which is not what we mean.

Correct patterns are:

[Reason], daarom/dus [Result].
[Result], want/omdat [Reason].

Can you drop the pronoun and say … daarom eet het nagerecht snel op?

No. In Dutch, you must normally express the subject pronoun in a finite clause.

✔ Daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
✘ Daarom eet het nagerecht snel op. (this means "therefore the dessert eats quickly", and it’s missing the subject hij)

The only common cases where the subject is dropped are:

Imperatives: Eet het nagerecht snel op! – Eat the dessert quickly!
Very informal, elliptical speech, e.g. answering a question with only part of a sentence. But in a full sentence like yours, you need hij.

Why is the present tense (heeft, eet) used, even though Tom is in a hurry now?

Dutch simple present covers several uses that English splits between present simple and present continuous.

Tom heeft haast, daarom eet hij het nagerecht snel op.
can mean:
- Tom is in a hurry, so he is eating the dessert quickly (right now), or
- Tom is in a hurry, therefore he eats the dessert quickly (more general).

Dutch often uses the plain present where English would use is eating:

Hij leest een boek. = He is reading a book. / He reads a book.

How would this sentence look in the past tense?

You can put both clauses in the simple past:

Tom had haast, daarom at hij het nagerecht snel op.

Or in the present perfect (also very common in spoken Dutch):

Tom heeft haast gehad, daarom heeft hij het nagerecht snel opgegeten.

Both are grammatically correct; which one you use depends on context and style. The simple past version is the most straightforward parallel to the original.