Relatieve bijzin
Die for de-words, dat for het-words — and the clause they open sends its verb to the end.
A relative clause lets one sentence carry two facts, which is what separates a B1 answer from an A2 one. It costs two things at once: choosing die or dat from the article of the noun in front, and then remembering that this is a subordinate clause, so the verb goes to the end. Learners who master de and het still slip here, because the choice is made under the pressure of a sentence already in motion.
How the exam tests this
Schrijven, in the short and partial tasks where you have to pack a situation into a few lines. A relative clause is the cheapest way to do that, and the assessors are reading for whether you can build a sentence with more than one part in it. In Lezen it matters differently: the texts use these clauses constantly to insert a definition or a condition mid-sentence, and a reader who loses track of which noun the die refers back to answers the question about the wrong thing.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Ik heb een klacht over het pakket die is bezorgd vorige week.
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