Luisteren: waarom-vraag
A question asking for the reason: why something is cancelled, closed or late, or why someone is calling.
A reason in Dutch almost always arrives after a small signal word — want, omdat, vanwege, door, daarom — and it is usually one short clause. The difficulty is that the fragment is full of true facts around that clause: who is speaking, when the appointment was, what happens next. The wrong options are those neighbouring facts, and they are true; they are simply not the reason.
How the exam tests this
In the A2 Luisteren part — multiple choice on short audio fragments, computer-marked — a why-question follows voicemails from a dentist or a school, shop announcements and short phone calls. The options are built from the same fragment: the person who is speaking instead of the person who is ill, the time of the appointment instead of the cause, the result of the call instead of its purpose. Every option was said; only one of them was said after want, omdat or vanwege.
What is wrong with this sentence?
De assistente is ziek
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