Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.

We do not want to take the risk.

Breakdown of Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.

• niet: not
• wij: we
• willen: to want
• het risico: the risk
• aangaan: to turn on

Questions & Answers about Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.

What is the difference between wij and we? Could I also say We willen het risico niet aangaan?

Both wij and we mean we in English.

• wij = the stressed form. Used when you want to emphasize we (often in writing or when contrasting with others).
  • Wij willen het risico niet aangaan. → We (as opposed to others) don’t want to take the risk.
• we = the unstressed form. Much more common in everyday speech.
  • We willen het risico niet aangaan. → Neutral, no special emphasis.

In this sentence, both are grammatically correct. The choice is about emphasis and style, not grammar.

Why is it het risico and not de risico?

In Dutch, every noun has a grammatical gender: de-words or het-words.

• risico is a het-word:
  • singular, indefinite: een risico (a risk)
  • singular, definite: het risico (the risk)
  • plural: de risico’s (the risks)

So with the definite article in the singular, it must be het risico.
You just have to learn the gender; dictionaries usually mark this as het risico.

Why is aangaan written as one word here? Isn’t aan a separate word?

Aangaan is a separable verb:

• Base infinitive: aangaan (aan + gaan)
• Meaning here: to take on / to assume / to enter into (a risk, obligation, contract, etc.)

How it behaves:

• With a normal (finite) verb:

  • Wij gaan het risico niet aan.
    • The finite verb gaan is in second position.
    • The separable prefix aan goes to the end of the clause.

• With a modal verb like willen, the verb stays as a full infinitive at the end:

  • Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
  • Here aangaan stays together because it’s an infinitive following willen.

So:

• Finite: gaan … aan
• Infinitive/participle: aangaan, aangegaan

That’s why you see aangaan as one word in this sentence.

What exactly does het risico aangaan mean, and how is it different from een risico nemen or een risico lopen?

All three relate to “risk,” but they have slightly different nuances:

• het risico aangaan

  • Literally: to enter into / take on the risk.
  • Feels a bit more deliberate and sometimes more formal.
  • Often used with commitments, contracts, financial or serious decisions.
  • Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
    • We don’t want to take (on) the risk / enter into that risk.

• een risico nemen

  • Literally: to take a risk.
  • Very close to everyday English “take a risk.”
  • Wij willen geen risico nemen.
    • We don’t want to take any risk.

• een risico lopen

  • Literally: to run a risk.
  • Focuses more on the possibility of something bad happening.
  • Wij willen het risico niet lopen.
    • We don’t want to run the risk.

In many contexts you can swap them, but:

• aangaan → more about entering into / accepting the risk.
• nemen → neutral “take a risk.”
• lopen → emphasizes the danger you’re exposed to.

Why is niet placed before aangaan? Could I say Wij willen niet het risico aangaan?

The default word order in this kind of sentence is:

subject – finite verb – object(s) – niet – (other verbs/infinitives)

So:

• Wij (subject)
• willen (finite verb)
• het risico (object)
• niet (negation)
• aangaan (infinitive)

→ Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.

Other possibilities and nuances:

1. Wij willen het risico niet.

   • Grammatically fine.
   • Means: We don’t want the risk (the risk itself is being rejected).
   • Sounds a bit incomplete in isolation; often you’d add more context.

2. Wij willen niet het risico aangaan.

   • Grammatically possible but marked.
   • Puts strong emphasis on niet
     • het risico aangaan, like:
       • It’s specifically taking on this risk that we don’t want (maybe we’d do something else instead).
   • You’d only use this in a context where you’re contrasting options or stressing that this particular risk is what you don’t want.

So the neutral, standard version is exactly:

Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.

Why is willen used here and not zullen? In English we might say “We won’t take the risk.”

English “will” has both a future-time meaning and a volition/refusal meaning. Dutch splits these:

• willen = to want (or to be willing / to refuse in the negative)

  • Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
    • Literally: We do not want to take on the risk.
    • Pragmatically: We refuse to take the risk / We’re not willing to take the risk.

• zullen = will/shall in the sense of future or a promise/plan/suggestion.

  • Wij zullen het risico niet aangaan.
    • We will not take the risk (that will be our policy/decision).
    • Sounds more like a stated plan or promise, not directly about desire.

Both Dutch sentences can correspond to English “We won’t take the risk,” but:

• With willen, the focus is on willingness: we don’t want to.
• With zullen, the focus is on the decision/future fact: we will not (as a rule or plan).

Why do we use niet and not geen here?

Niet and geen both negate, but they’re used in different structures:

• geen negates an indefinite noun (no / not any):

  • We nemen geen risico.
    • We take no risk / We don’t take any risk.
  • Here, risico has no article; geen functions like “no/any”.

• niet negates:

  • verbs or verb phrases,
  • adjectives,
  • prepositional phrases,
  • definite noun phrases with het/de/die/dat are usually negated via the verb, not with geen.

In our sentence we have:

• het risico → a definite noun phrase (with het)
• We’re negating the action (aangaan), not turning het risico into “no risk.”

So we say:

Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
(We don’t want to take on the risk.)

If you wanted the “no risk / not any risk” idea, you’d switch to an indefinite noun:

Wij willen geen risico nemen.
(We don’t want to take any risk.)

If I replace het risico with a pronoun, where does it go? Is Wij willen het niet aangaan correct?

Yes, that’s correct:

Wij willen het niet aangaan.
We don’t want to take it on.

Word order rules:

• Object pronouns (like het, hem, haar, ze) usually come before niet in main clauses.
• The infinitive (here: aangaan) stays at the end of the clause.

So:

• full noun: Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
• pronoun: Wij willen het niet aangaan.

You would not say:

• ✗ Wij willen niet het aangaan. (wrong position for the pronoun)

Should there be te before aangaan, like … niet aan te gaan?

Not after willen.

In Dutch:

• After modal verbs like kunnen, moeten, mogen, willen, zullen, you use a bare infinitive (no te):

  • Wij willen het risico niet aangaan.
  • We willen gaan.
  • Ik kan hem niet vinden.

• After many non-modal verbs, you do use te:

  • We proberen het risico niet aan te gaan.
    • We’re trying not to take on the risk.
  • Hij besluit het risico niet aan te gaan.
    • He decides not to take on the risk.

So in the original sentence, no “te” is correct:

Wij willen het risico niet aangaan. ✅
✗ Wij willen het risico niet aan te gaan. ❌

How do you pronounce Wij willen het risico niet aangaan?

Approximate pronunciation (using a rough English-based description):

• Wij – like English “way” but starting with a soft v/w sound: [ʋɛi]
• willen – WIL-len, with short i (like English “will”), second syllable “lun” but very reduced.
• het – like English “hut” but very short: [hət], often almost just “ut”.
• risico – REE-see-koh:
  • ri like English “ree”
  • si like “see”
  • co like “koh”
• niet – like English “neat” (long ii sound).
• aangaan – AAHN-gahn:
  • aa is a long open “ah” (like in British “father”)
  • both aa sounds are the same: aan–gaan

Said smoothly, it roughly sounds like:

[ʋɛi WIL-lən hət REE-see-koh neet AAHN-gahn]