Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen.

Tomorrow I will let my friend come again.

Breakdown of Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen.

• ik: I
• morgen: tomorrow
• de vriend: the friend
• weer: again
• mijn: my
• laten komen: to call in

Questions & Answers about Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen.

What exactly does laat ... komen mean here? Is it let, make, or something else?

The verb laten is a causative verb: it means that you cause or allow someone else to do something.
In laat ik mijn vriend weer komen, it can be translated in several natural ways:

• Tomorrow I’ll *let my friend come again.* (permission)
• Tomorrow I’ll *have my friend come again.* (arrangement)

The exact English choice (let / have / get / allow) depends on context, but the key idea is: I am not coming; I am causing/allowing my friend to come.

Why does the sentence start with Morgen and then put laat ik (verb before subject)? Is that word order required?

Dutch main clauses follow a verb-second (V2) rule: the finite verb (here laat) must be in second position, no matter what comes first.

So if you start with the time word:

• Morgen (first position: time)
• laat (second position: finite verb)
• ik (third position: subject)

You could also say:

• Ik laat morgen mijn vriend weer komen.

Here ik is in first position, and laat is still in second position.
Both versions are correct; Morgen laat ik… just puts extra emphasis on tomorrow.

Why is the verb laat in the present tense if the sentence is about tomorrow?

Dutch very often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially when you also have a time word like morgen.

So:

• Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen.
  = Tomorrow I (will) let my friend come again.

You could also say:

• Morgen zal ik mijn vriend weer laten komen.

This uses zal (will), but in everyday speech the simple present with morgen is perfectly normal and very common.

Why does weer come between mijn vriend and komen? Could I move it somewhere else?

In laat ik mijn vriend weer komen, weer is an adverb meaning again. A very common position for adverbs like weer is before the final verb (or verb cluster) or after the object.

Possible word orders include:

• Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen. (neutral, very natural)
• Morgen laat ik weer mijn vriend komen. (focus a bit more on my friend in contrast to someone else)

But:

• Morgen laat ik mijn vriend komen weer is not natural.
  Adverbs like weer usually don’t go all the way at the end after the infinitive in this kind of structure.

So: mijn vriend weer komen is the standard, natural order here.

What is the difference between weer, opnieuw, and nog een keer?

All three relate to the idea of again, but with different flavors:

• weer = again, once more (most common, very neutral, used in many contexts).
• opnieuw = again / anew, often with a nuance of starting over or doing something from the beginning.
• nog een keer = one more time / once more, slightly more informal and explicit about the number of times.

In this sentence, weer is the natural, neutral choice: it simply means that this is happening again, not necessarily that you are restarting the whole process from scratch.

Does mijn vriend mean my male friend or my boyfriend?

Mijn vriend is ambiguous in Dutch:

• It can mean my (male) friend.
• It can also mean my boyfriend.

Context (and sometimes tone or previous conversation) usually makes it clear. If you want to avoid the romantic meaning, you can say:

• een vriend van mij = a friend of mine (sounds more neutral/friendly).

For a female romantic partner, Dutch uses mijn vriendin (my girlfriend). But vriendin can also mean simply female friend, so the same ambiguity exists.

Why is komen at the very end of the sentence?

In Dutch main clauses with a helping/causative verb plus another verb, the infinitive(s) go at the end of the clause.

Here the finite verb is:

• laat (from laten)

And the infinitive is:

• komen

So the skeleton of the clause is:

• Morgen – laat – ik – mijn vriend – weer – komen.

That final position for komen is standard Dutch word order in such verb clusters.

How is Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen different from Morgen komt mijn vriend weer?

They describe different situations:

• Morgen komt mijn vriend weer.
  = Tomorrow my friend is coming again.
  This just states what he is doing; it doesn’t say anything about your control over it.

• Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen.
  = Tomorrow I’ll let / have my friend come again.
  This shows that you are allowing, arranging, or causing him to come. It adds the idea that it in some way depends on you.

So adding laat … komen gives a nuance of control, permission, or arrangement by the speaker.

Why is it mijn vriend and not mijne vriend?

In modern Dutch, possessives before a noun normally use the short form:

• mijn vriend
• jouw huis
• zijn auto
• haar tas

Forms like mijne, jouwe, zijne are mostly used:

• without a following noun:
  
  • Die tas is niet de mijne. (That bag is not mine.)
• Or in somewhat archaic/poetic language.

So mijne vriend sounds old-fashioned or incorrect in contemporary standard Dutch. Mijn vriend is the normal form.

Can laat here also mean late, like in English?

No.

Dutch laat in this sentence is the verb laten in the first person singular present tense (ik laat = I let / I have someone do something).

The Dutch word for the adjective late (as in a late train) is also laat, but:

• As an adjective/adverb, it would not appear in this position or with this structure.
• In Morgen laat ik mijn vriend weer komen, the grammar clearly shows laat is the verb governed by ik.

So here it is only the causative verb (to let / to have / to allow), not the adjective late.