omdat
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch omdat. Equivalent to univerbation of om + dat.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɔmˈdat/
Conjunction
omdat
- because
- Sy was laat, omdat die treine nie gery het nie.
- She was late, because the trains weren't driving.
- Synonyms: kôs, want
Usage notes
- Omdat triggers the use of verb-final word order in the following subordinate clause. This contrasts with want, that uses the word order of positive main clauses.
Dutch
Etymology
Univerbation of om + dat.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɔmˈdɑt/
audio (file) - Hyphenation: om‧dat
- Rhymes: -ɑt
Conjunction
omdat
- because
- De machinist komt niet naar zijn werk, omdat hij ziek is.
- The train driver is not coming to work because he is sick.
Usage notes
- The word order is subject-object-verb after omdat. This contrasts with the synonym want, after which the word order is that of non-interrogative main clauses.
- In prescriptive use omdat is often reserved for subjective reasoning or non-direct consecution, while doordat implies direct, objective causation and the formal conjunction opdat is used for the end (telos) of an action. Less formal usage tends to prefer omdat to doordat and occasionally omdat is used where opdat would be prescribed. Compare daarom and daardoor.
Hypernyms
- want
Coordinate terms
- doordat
Descendants
- Afrikaans: omdat
- → Kwinti: omdat