What if I told you there’s another thing that’s fairly easy to learn, and that will make you better at a very common part of the Dutch language than a large chunk of its native speakers? That’s right! I’ve done this before, and I’m going to do it again. Check out this rather simple rule, and you won’t ever have to make the very mistake that a lot of Dutch speakers make on a daily basis. Here’s how the rules for als and dan work.
Als and dan
Als and dan are two simple words that have perfectly normal English counterparts: als often means if/when, and dan often means then. So far, so good. Let’s see them in a sentence first:
Als je nu vertrekt, dan kom je nog op tijd (Eng: If you leave now, then you’ll still arrive on time)
We gaan eten als Sanne thuiskomt (Eng: We’ll eat when Sanne comes home)
As you can see, Dutch doesn’t split als into two versions, like English, where one means as soon as and the other means in case it happens. In Dutch, als is just als, and dan is just dan.
Or are they!
The Dutch mistake
Als the rule is so easy, dan how come Dutchies stuff it up so often? That’s because als and dan can also be used with degrees of comparison – I’ve done an entire article about those. When that’s the case, they are used in pretty much the exact same way as the English as and than. As in:
Ik ben even lang als jij (Eng: I’m as tall as you)
Ik ben langer dan jij (Eng: I’m taller than you)
Now here’s the strange part. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an English speaker, native or not, use as in the second sentence, or than in the first (then is sometimes wrongfully used, but that’s a whole other story). It just feels like it totally makes sense that you’re as tall as someone, but taller than them.
In Dutch, this rule is exactly the same, and yet, als and dan are switched around all the time. You’ll hear a (wrong!) sentence like Ik fiets harder als jij/jou (Eng: I bike faster as you [sic]) all the time – especially from the mouths of children, but plenty of adults indulge in the same error, too.
While the first How YOU can beat the Dutch at Dutch article was a bit of a long story that required quite a bit of knowledge about Dutch verb conjugation, this one really doesn’t. All you’ll have to remember is to just do the exact same thing as you would in English: when things are the same, you use as, and when they’re different, you use than. That’s all there is to it!
Long story short
This wasn’t a very long story for a change, which proves just how easy the als/dan rule actually is. It’s pretty much the same as it the English one, but while I’ve never heard an English speaker use as instead of than, or the other way around, it does happen a lot in Dutch – and wrongfully so.
If you just stick to the basic rule, you’ll never have to make the same mistake. You might even, at some point, feel comfortable calling the Dutch out on their slight error, and who knows, at some point, you miiiiiight even be able to tell them: Ik spreek beter Nederlands dan jij.
