Inversie
When anything other than the subject opens the sentence, the verb still stands second and the subject moves behind it.
Dutch fixes the finite verb in second position, whatever stands first. The rule itself is one line and takes a minute; the work is that it fires on the sentences you most want to write — the ones opening with a time or a reason, which is exactly how a message or a short letter begins. Marks are lost on inversion far more often than on endings.
How the exam tests this
Schrijven, and it is handwritten: four tasks — a form, short messages, short open writing. Nothing asks you to name the rule. It is marked on whether the message does its job in readable Dutch, and a sentence with the verb in the wrong place is the most visible error on the page. It also appears in Lezen without being tested: a sentence opening with Morgen or Daarom will not parse if you expect the subject first.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Volgende week ik kan niet werken.
Most candidates write it exactly like this and lose the mark without knowing why.
The rest of this lesson
The rule, the worked examples, the exceptions and what to do in the exam room open with Mastery, together with every other lesson for this exam.
See plans