Learn Hardcore Dutch: De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis. - The cat sometimes wants to run away from the house.

There are patterns (e.g. all diminutives like huisje take het), but kat and huis themselves just have to be memorized as de kat and het huis.

Why is it wil and not wilt in De kat wil soms weglopen …?

It’s about the conjugation of willen (to want).

Present tense:

ik wil
jij / je wilt
hij / zij / het wil
wij / jullie / zij willen
u wilt (formal; u wil also occurs but u wilt is standard)

De kat is third person singular (like hij/zij/het), so you use wil, not wilt:

Hij wil …
Zij wil …
De kat wil …

You would only use wilt with jij/je (and usually u).

Why does soms come after wil? Could I put it somewhere else?

In a normal Dutch main clause, the conjugated verb (here wil) must be in second position. Adverbs like soms usually go in the “middle field,” often right after that verb:

De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis. (neutral word order)

You can move soms, but you change the emphasis a bit:

Soms wil de kat weglopen van het huis.
– Emphasis on sometimes. Good, very natural.
De kat wil weglopen van het huis, soms.
– Possible, but sounds more like an afterthought.

The version in your sentence (wil soms …) is the default, neutral placement of a frequency adverb.

Why is weglopen at the end of the sentence?

Dutch main clauses follow the verb-second rule:

One part (here the subject De kat) goes first.
The conjugated verb (here wil) comes second.
Other elements (objects, adverbs, infinitives, etc.) go later.

When you have a modal verb (like wil) plus another verb (here weglopen), the modal is conjugated and sits in second position, and the infinitive goes towards the end:

De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis.

So:

wil = conjugated verb → second position
weglopen = infinitive → pushed to the right end of the clause

Why isn’t it wil soms te weglopen? In English we say “wants to run away”.

In Dutch, some verbs take te before an infinitive, but modal verbs do not.

Common modal verbs:

kunnen (can)
moeten (must / have to)
willen (want)
mogen (may / be allowed to)
zullen (will / shall)
laten (let)

With these, you use a bare infinitive, without te:

Ik wil weglopen. (not: te weglopen)
Zij kan komen. (not: te komen)
We moeten gaan. (not: te gaan)

So De kat wil soms weglopen is correct; adding te would be wrong here.

Is weglopen one word? How does it behave in other forms?

Weglopen is a separable verb: weg (particle) + lopen (verb).

How it behaves:

Infinitive / with another verb: written as one word, at the end
- De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis.
- De kat zal morgen weglopen.
Simple present/past main clause: the particle often moves to the end and splits off
- De kat loopt soms weg van het huis.
- De kat liep gisteren weg.
Subordinate clauses: it’s written together again at the end
- … omdat de kat soms van het huis wegloopt.
- … toen de kat van het huis wegliep.

So spelling depends on the structure, but it’s considered one verb: weglopen.

What’s the difference between De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis and De kat loopt soms weg van het huis?

Nuance of meaning:

De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis.
– The cat wants to run away sometimes.
– Focus on desire / intention, not necessarily that it actually does.
De kat loopt soms weg van het huis.
– The cat sometimes runs/walks away from the house.
– Describes actual behaviour that happens.

So wil weglopen = wants to run away.
loopt weg = does (in fact) walk/run away.

Why is it van het huis and not uit het huis or van huis?

Prepositions change the nuance:

van het huis
- Literally from the house / away from the house’s vicinity.
- Focus on increasing distance from the house (not necessarily out of the inside).
- Your sentence: the cat wants to be away from that house.
uit het huis
- Literally out of the house (from the inside to outside).
- Focus on the exit from the interior.
- Example:
  - De kat loopt uit het huis. = The cat walks out of the house.
  - De kat loopt weg uit het huis. = It walks away, starting from inside.
van huis (without article)
- A more idiomatic / general phrase: “from home”. More often used for people.
- Hij is van huis weggelopen. = He ran away from home.
- For a specific house that you can point at, van het huis is more literal.

So van het huis fits when you mean a particular house the cat is moving away from.

Can I also say Soms wil de kat weglopen van het huis? Is that different?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and natural:

De kat wil soms weglopen van het huis.
Soms wil de kat weglopen van het huis.

Both are grammatical.

Difference:

Soms wil de kat …
– Slightly more emphasis on sometimes (you’re starting the sentence with the time/frequency).
De kat wil soms …
– Slightly more focus on the cat as the topic; soms is just added information.

In everyday speech, both versions are very common.

Are there more formal or different ways to say weglopen van het huis?

Yes, you can express a similar idea in more formal or different ways, though they don’t all carry exactly the same nuance:

De kat wil soms het huis verlaten.
– “The cat sometimes wants to leave the house.”
– More neutral/formal; no strong “run away” feeling, just leave.
De kat wil soms weggaan bij het huis.
– “The cat sometimes wants to go away from the house.”
– Colloquial; weggaan is more general “go away”.
De kat wil soms van huis weglopen.
– “The cat sometimes wants to run away from home.”
– More idiomatic if you mean its home in a general sense, not just a random building.

For the typical “run away from (this) house” idea, weglopen van het huis is clear and natural.