Schuif de stoel naar opzij, zodat wij kunnen zitten.

Because schuif is the imperative form: it is used for commands or instructions.

• schuiven = to move / to slide
• schuif = move! / slide!

In Dutch, imperatives often appear without a subject pronoun, especially in direct instructions:

• Schuif de stoel naar opzij.
• Open de deur.
• Wacht even.

If you want to sound more polite or formal, Dutch often uses a different structure, for example:

• Schuift u de stoel naar opzij?
• Kunt u de stoel naar opzij schuiven?

So this sentence sounds like a straightforward instruction.

Naar opzij means to the side or aside.

Here:

• naar = toward / to
• opzij = aside / to one side

So together they express movement in that direction: move the chair to one side.

A useful thing to know: opzij is one word in Dutch.

Also, Dutch very often allows just:

• Schuif de stoel opzij.

That is extremely common and natural too.
The version with naar opzij makes the directional idea a bit more explicit.

Because stoel is a de-word in Dutch.

Dutch nouns usually take either:

• de
• het

There is no simple universal rule that lets you predict all of them, so you often have to learn the article with the noun.

So:

• de stoel = the chair

If you replace it with a pronoun later, you would usually use hij or hem for a de-word noun, depending on the grammar of the sentence.

Zodat means so that.

It introduces a clause that gives the purpose or intended result of the first action:

• Schuif de stoel naar opzij
  = move the chair aside
• zodat wij kunnen zitten
  = so that we can sit

So the structure is:

• action first
• purpose/result after zodat

This is very common in Dutch.

Because zodat introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the verbs usually move toward the end.

Compare:

• Main clause: Wij kunnen zitten.
• After zodat: zodat wij kunnen zitten

Here the verb group kunnen zitten comes at the end of the clause.

That is a major Dutch pattern:

• Ik blijf thuis, omdat ik moe ben.
• Hij belt haar, zodat zij het weet.

So the unusual word order is not specific to this sentence; it is a normal feature of subordinate clauses in Dutch.

Both wij and we mean we.

The difference is mostly about style and emphasis:

• we = more common in everyday speech
• wij = slightly more formal, clearer, or more emphatic

So in normal conversation, many speakers would naturally say:

• ...zodat we kunnen zitten.

The version with wij is still perfectly correct. It just sounds a bit more careful or written.

In standard modern Dutch, with a modal verb like kunnen, the normal order is:

• kunnen zitten
• moeten wachten
• willen gaan

So:

• zodat wij kunnen zitten = standard word order

The whole verb group is at the end of the subordinate clause, and within that group kunnen comes before zitten.

You may occasionally encounter different orders in older language, regional language, or special stylistic contexts, but kunnen zitten is the normal standard form.

Yes, gaan zitten is possible, but it changes the nuance a little.

• zitten = to sit / to be sitting
• gaan zitten = to sit down

In context, zodat wij kunnen zitten often naturally means so that we can sit or so that we can sit down, depending on the situation.

If you want to emphasize the action of sitting down, you could say:

• Schuif de stoel naar opzij, zodat wij kunnen gaan zitten.

But the original sentence is shorter and very natural. Dutch often leaves that distinction to the context.

Yes, in standard Dutch spelling, a comma is normally used here because zodat wij kunnen zitten is a subordinate clause added to the main clause.

So the punctuation is correct:

• Schuif de stoel naar opzij, zodat wij kunnen zitten.

This is similar to English, where a pause before so that is also often natural.