# Placement of 'nou'



## MarkOxford

Greetings!


English is pretty flexible when it comes to the placement of ‘now’ and I was wondering whether Dutch is equally flexible. In English, you can say each of (1); are all of (2) correct in Dutch? Also, is it natural to use ‘nou’ at all, or is this so strongly implied by the present tense that including it is unnatural?


(1a) I am home now.

(1b) Now I am home.

(1c) I am now home.


(2a) Ik ben thuis nou.

(2b) Nou ben ik thuis.

(2c) Ik ben nou thuis.

[Concerning (2b), am I right in thinking that this is the correct word order, and  not *'Nou ik ben thuis'?]


Thanks a lot!


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## Peterdg

They are all good in Dutch. And, yes, your word order in 2b is correct.


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## MarkOxford

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply! If I can ask a follow-up: replacing 'nou' with 'vandaag' would render (2a) ungrammatical, but (2b) and (2c) remain ok?


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## Hans Molenslag

(2b) is an example of what is called _inversie_ in Dutch grammar books. It's a feature common to all Germanic languages except English. So it should come naturally for German speakers, but it's notoriously difficult for speakers of Romance languages and English to learn. I had this colleague from the French part of Belgium who spoke fluent and fully functional Dutch, but you could easily tell when she was tired at the end of the afternoon, because that's when she would start making _inversie_ errors.


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## Hans Molenslag

MarkOxford said:


> If I can ask a follow-up: replacing 'nou' with 'vandaag' would render (2a) ungrammatical, but (2b) and (2c) remain ok?


As a matter of fact (2a) would be grammatical too. Both _vandaag thuis_ and _thuis vandaag_ are perfectly acceptable, whereas in German _zu Hause heute_ doesn't sound right, does it? Apparently word order is a bit more flexible in Dutch than in German in this respect.


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## MarkOxford

Hans Molenslag said:


> in German _zu Hause heute_ doesn't sound right, does it?


That's right: '*Ich bin zu Hause (/daheim) heute' is ungrammatical. It's also ungrammatical with 'jetzt'/'nun'. I was interested in 'vandaag' because of (1c). If you swap 'today' for 'now' there, you'll get an ungrammatical result. (Similarly for 'next Monday' 'every day' etc.) That's why I was particularly interested in 'now'.


Anyway, thanks for your response!


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## eno2

Peterdg said:


> They are all good in Dutch. And, yes, your word order in 2b is correct.


2


Nou is colloquial speech in The Netherlands. Not so in Belgium.


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## MarkOxford

eno2 said:


> Nou is colloquial speech in The Netherlands. Not so in Belgium.



Thanks - I see. Do the sentences in (2) become less natural though if we use 'nu' instead?


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## eno2

2b nu ben ik thuis: to me is perfectly OK.

2b nou ben ik thuis: I'm not 100% sure as I'm not using nou that  much, but I suppose it's OK.

----
Something else on 'nou':

I would use nou to say:
_nou dat weet ik niet _.
Nou introduces a kind of limitation/caveat/objection  here. The sentence is an objection in itself.

But I would not use nu in the same way.
_nu dat weet ik niet._

weird...


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## MarkOxford

eno2 said:


> But I would not use nu in the same way.
> 
> _nu dat weet ik niet._
> 
> 
> weird...




That is weird. Although, in German also we have two words for 'now': 'jetzt' and 'nun'. You can use the latter a bit like ‘well’ in English: ‘Nun, dann komm ich später wieder!’ – ‘Well, then I’ll come back later!’ You can’t use ‘jetzt’ like that. Then again, ‘nou’ and ‘nu’ are obviously a lot closer than ‘nun’ and ‘jetzt’.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback! And just to clarify: 2a and 2c are fine with 'nu' instead of 'nou'?


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## eno2

Absolutely.


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## MarkOxford

Thanks!


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## Peterdg

Hans Molenslag said:


> (2b) is an example of what is called _inversie_ in Dutch grammar books. It's a feature common to all Germanic languages except English.


This is a consequence of the fact that Dutch (as well as German) is a V2 language in principal clauses, meaning that, in principal clauses, the verb always has to come in second position.

PS. Hans, this is not directed to you but is intended to give some background info on why these inversions occur.


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## MarkOxford

As an afterthought, do auxiliaries restrict the placement of ‘nu’? For instance, can I say both (i) and (ii), or just (a)? Thanks!

(i) Ik wil nu eten.
(ii) Ik wil eten nu.


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## eno2

No they don't restrict. Yes you can say both, with the same meaning.

Context could  make you prefer or make use of the one above the other, automatically. 

Ik wil *eten* nu= Ik wil *eten * en niet iets anders doen...= I want to eat instead of doing *something else*. <Kan je met ons meegaan? Nee, ik wil *eten* nu.>

Ik wil *nu *eten en niet straks of over twee uur.  Klemtoon op NU. Nothing else involved.. Only other points in time are discarded.
Maar je kan ook de klemtoon op eten leggen. But you can also stress eten in this same construction.  Ik wil nu *eten*. Something else than eten is discarded.

Rather subtle differences or different connotations caused by stress or word order....


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## MarkOxford

Thanks, and thanks again for your earlier help: it's much appreciated!


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