Learn Hardcore Dutch: Wij willen onze schermtijd beperken.

wij is the stressed form – you use it when you want to emphasize the subject:
- Wij willen onze schermtijd beperken (niet zij).
  We want to limit our screen time (not them).
we is the unstressed / neutral form and is more common in everyday speech:
- We willen onze schermtijd beperken.

In writing and normal conversation, you’ll usually hear we. Wij adds emphasis or can sound a bit more formal or careful. The sentence is perfectly correct with either Wij or We.

Why is the verb willen in second position, and why does beperken go at the end?

Dutch main clauses follow a verb-second (V2) rule:

First position: usually the subject → Wij
Second position: the finite verb (the one that is conjugated) → willen
Middle part: objects and other information → onze schermtijd
End: infinitives and participles → beperken

So the structure is:

Wij (subject) + willen (finite verb) + onze schermtijd (object) + beperken (infinitive)

You cannot say:

✗ Wij onze schermtijd willen beperken (in a normal main clause)
The conjugated verb willen must be in the second position.

What exactly does willen do in this sentence, and how is it conjugated?

Willen is a modal verb meaning to want (to). It works much like English want to:

Wij willen beperken → We want to limit

Conjugation in the present tense:

ik wil – I want
jij / je wilt (or wil in informal speech) – you want
hij / zij / het wil – he / she / it wants
wij / we willen – we want
jullie willen – you (plural) want
zij / ze willen – they want

So with wij, the correct form is wij willen.

Why is it onze schermtijd and not ons schermtijd?

The choice between ons and onze depends on the gender and number of the noun:

ons is used with het-words (neuter) in the singular:
- ons huis – our house (het huis)
- ons kind – our child (het kind)
onze is used with:
- all de-words (common gender) in the singular, and
- all plural nouns, no matter if they’re de or het words:
  - onze tafel – our table (de tafel)
  - onze kinderen – our children (de/het kind → kinderen, plural → onze)

Schermtijd is a de-word (de schermtijd), so the correct form is:

onze schermtijd – our screen time

What kind of word is schermtijd, and why is it written as one word?

Schermtijd is a compound noun made of:

het scherm – the screen
de tijd – the time

Dutch usually writes compounds as one word:

scherm + tijd → schermtijd (screen time)
huis + deur → huisdeur (house door)
school + tas → schooltas (school bag)

The gender of a compound is generally determined by the last part:

Last part here: tijd → de tijd
So: de schermtijd, and therefore onze schermtijd.

That’s why it’s one word and takes de and onze.

Why is it schermtijd beperken and not something like onszelf beperken?

The verb beperken means to limit / to restrict and can take a direct object:

Wij beperken onze schermtijd.
We limit our screen time.

You only need a reflexive pronoun (onszelf) if you literally mean restrict ourselves (in a general sense), not specifically our screen time:

Wij beperken onszelf. – We restrict/limit ourselves (in general).
Wij beperken onze schermtijd. – We limit our screen time (that specific thing).

In your sentence, the thing being limited is schermtijd, so the non-reflexive form beperken with an object is correct.

Could I use a different verb instead of beperken, like verminderen or inperken?

Yes, but there are small nuances:

beperken – to limit, to put a cap on
- Wij willen onze schermtijd beperken.
  We want to limit our screen time. (focus on setting a limit or boundary)
verminderen – to reduce, make less in quantity
- Wij willen onze schermtijd verminderen.
  We want to reduce our screen time. (focus on making it smaller)
inperken – to curb, to restrict, often slightly stronger/stricter
- Wij willen onze schermtijd inperken.
  We want to curb our screen time. (strong sense of restricting)

All three are grammatically fine; beperken and verminderen are probably the most neutral choices here.

How would I make this sentence more polite, like We would like to limit our screen time?

A very natural, polite way is to add graag:

Wij willen graag onze schermtijd beperken.
We would like to limit our screen time.

Graag is an adverb that adds the idea of with pleasure / would like to, softening the directness of willen.

You can also say:

We zouden graag onze schermtijd willen beperken.
Literally: We would like to want to limit our screen time.
This is correct, but a bit heavier. In everyday speech, We willen graag… is usually enough and sounds entirely polite.

How would I say We don’t want to limit our screen time? Where does niet go?

To negate the sentence, you add niet in the middle field, before the infinitive at the end:

Wij willen onze schermtijd niet beperken.
We don’t want to limit our screen time.

Structure:

Wij (subject) + willen (finite verb) + onze schermtijd (object) + niet (negation) + beperken (infinitive)

This is the normal word order for negating a sentence with a modal verb (willen) and an infinitive (beperken) in a main clause.