Learn Hardcore Dutch: Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen, omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid. - Sofie has not been able to sleep because the neighbours played music all night.

Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen
- Present perfect tense.
- Very common in spoken Dutch.
- Focuses on the result in the present: the fact that Sofie has not been able to sleep (and is probably still tired now).
Sofie kon niet slapen
- Simple past tense.
- A bit more typical in written narrative or storytelling.
- Describes a past situation: she could not sleep then, without necessarily highlighting the present result.

So the sentence chooses the present perfect to stress the (recent) result of the neighbours’ behaviour: she ended up without sleep.

Why is niet before kunnen slapen and not at the very end?

In Dutch, niet usually comes:

Before the infinite verb group (the cluster of infinitives)
Or before the specific part of the sentence you want to negate.

Here the infinite verb group is kunnen slapen, so niet goes in front of that:

Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen. ✅

You normally cannot put niet after the infinitives here:

✗ Sofie heeft kunnen slapen niet. (incorrect)

Think of it as: you are negating the ability to sleep, so you place niet right before kunnen slapen.

Why use kunnen at all? Why not just Sofie heeft niet geslapen?

These two are not the same:

Sofie heeft niet geslapen.
- Means she did not sleep.
- Neutral about why: maybe she chose to stay awake, maybe she had to work, etc.
Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen.
- Means she was not able to sleep.
- Emphasises inability – something prevented her from sleeping (here: the neighbours’ music).

So niet kunnen slapen makes it clearer that it was impossible for her to sleep, not just that she didn’t sleep.

Why is it heeft niet kunnen slapen instead of heeft niet gekund te slapen?

Dutch normally forms the perfect tense of modal verbs (like kunnen, moeten, mogen) with a double infinitive, not with the participle of the modal:

Standard, natural Dutch:
- Ik heb niet kunnen slapen.
- We hebben dat niet kunnen doen.
Very unusual / bookish:
- Ik heb niet gekund te slapen. (grammatically possible, but sounds wrong in modern Dutch)
- We hebben dat niet gemoeten doen. (very odd in everyday language)

So the pattern is:

hebben (conjugated) + modal verb infinitive + main verb infinitive
heeft niet kunnen slapen

You almost never use gekund in everyday speech.

Why is omdat used instead of want for because?

Both omdat and want translate as because, but:

omdat
- Is a subordinating conjunction.
- Starts a subordinate clause with verb at the end.
- More neutral, often slightly more formal.
- Example:
  - Sofie kan niet slapen, omdat de buren lawaai maken.
want
- Is a coordinating conjunction.
- Keeps normal word order (verb in second position).
- More like spoken, explanatory because, you see…
- Example:
  - Sofie kan niet slapen, want de buren maken lawaai.

In your sentence the writer chose omdat, so the verb in that clause must go to the end: …omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid.

Why is the verb at the end in omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid?

Because omdat introduces a subordinate clause, and in Dutch subordinate clauses the verbs go to the end:

Main clause (verb in 2nd position):
- De buren hebben de hele nacht muziek gedraaid.
Subordinate clause after omdat:
- omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid.

Inside that verb cluster:

First the finite auxiliary (hebben)
Then the past participle (gedraaid) at the very end

So the order …muziek hebben gedraaid follows the standard rule: [object] + [auxiliary] + [participle].

Why is it hebben gedraaid and not simple past draaiden?

Both are grammatically correct:

…omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid.
- Present perfect.
- Very common in spoken Dutch, especially for recent past events.
…omdat de buren de hele nacht muziek draaiden.
- Simple past.
- Feels more like written narrative or storytelling.

Modern Dutch (especially in the Netherlands) tends to prefer the present perfect for past events in everyday speech, where English might more often use the simple past.

What exactly does muziek draaien mean? Is it literally “to turn music”?

Muziek draaien is an idiomatic expression meaning to play music (from speakers, a sound system, radio, DJ set, etc.).

muziek draaien
- To play music (audio playback, like the neighbours did).
- Often used about DJs or someone putting on records / playlists.
- De DJ draait goede muziek.
muziek spelen
- Can mean to play music on an instrument.
- Also used more generally for perform music.

So the neighbours de hele nacht muziek hebben gedraaid means they had music playing all night, not that they were physically turning music around.

Why is it de buren and not something like de buur?

buur = neighbour (base form, rarely used by itself in everyday speech).
buurman = male neighbour.
buurvrouw = female neighbour.
buren = plural: neighbours (regardless of gender).

De buren therefore means the neighbours as a group (the people living next door / nearby).

You would normally say:

Mijn buurman / mijn buurvrouw (one neighbour).
Mijn buren (my neighbours, plural).

So de buren is perfectly natural for “the neighbours” as a group who were playing music.

What does de hele nacht mean exactly, and can it be said differently?

De hele nacht means the whole night / all night long.

Some common variations:

de hele nacht – very common:
- De buren hebben de hele nacht muziek gedraaid.
heel de nacht – also correct, slightly more regional / stylistic:
- De buren hebben heel de nacht muziek gedraaid.
de hele nacht door – emphasises non‑stop:
- De buren hebben de hele nacht door muziek gedraaid.

All of these express the idea that it went on continuously for the entire night.

Could you change the word order in the first clause, like Sofie heeft de hele nacht niet kunnen slapen?

Yes, and that is also natural Dutch:

Sofie heeft de hele nacht niet kunnen slapen.
- Adds an explicit time phrase (de hele nacht) to the first clause.
- Word order: Subject – finite verb – time – negation – verb cluster
- Very normal pattern:
  - Sofie (subject)
  - heeft (finite verb)
  - de hele nacht (time)
  - niet (negation)
  - kunnen slapen (infinitive cluster)

The original focuses structurally on the cause:

Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen, omdat…

Your version puts a bit more weight on the duration of her sleeplessness, but both are correct.

Is the comma before omdat required?

In modern Dutch:

A comma before many subordinating conjunctions, including omdat, is common and recommended, especially in longer sentences:
- Sofie heeft niet kunnen slapen, omdat de buren…
In very short sentences you may sometimes see it omitted, but many style guides still prefer the comma for clarity.

So the comma here is standard and correct, and helps clearly separate the main clause from the omdat‑clause.