Word order
The order of the words can be different if we compare different languages. Once more we present the well know picture that illustrates this in a powerful way by means of the sentence "I see 1 red cat" in different languages
It is clear that with this sentence the Dutch language is equal to the English language. But keep in mind: that is not always the case. Furthermore we see that for instance the Turkish language shows big differences with respect to the English and Dutch language.
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Word order
Let us start by examining the word order with a simple sentence:
With the sentence "I want 1 cup of coffee", the sentence starts with the personal pronoun "I" followed by the verb. But if we transform this sentence into a question, the position of the verb and the personal pronoun switches. In the English language a question starts with "do you want" or "would you like". In Dutch, just the personal pronoun and verb switches.
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Let us look at the sentence. It states that "I cycle to Amsterdam". In consists of two parts:
first part: you see the Dutch translation for I cycle ("ik fiets") and
second part: the indication wo what place I am going is placed at the end of the sentence.
Something remarkable happens if also an indication of time is given. Now the sentence starts with the indication of time and then the personal noun is switched with the verb (Dutch: "fiets ik").
The same happens if the last part is switched to the beginning of the sentence.
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The following sentence consists of two parts:
first part: "I like to shop" which is literally translated into 1: I and 2: shop 3: like. So like comes after the verb to shop.
second part: in Amsterdam. The last part is clear. It consists of a preposition ("in") and the actual place.
Once an indication of the time is taken as the first part of the sentence, the verb and the personal pronoun switch.
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The last examples shows different parts and by means of colors you can see the order of these parts. Again, if a special situation is indicated at the start of the sentence, the personal pronoun and the verb switch.
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