Connectives - Verbindingswoorden

Introduction

Click here for self-correcting exercises on connectives.
Cohesion can be achieved by making use of connectives which establish a link between two elements. The nature of the link determines the kind of connective you use. Thus, the first example below expresses a causal relationship between the sun shining and my taking the bike. The second example expresses a contrastive relationship between the weather conditions and my mode of transport.

Ik ga met de fiets omdat de zon schijnt.
I am going on the bike because the sun is shining.

Ik ga met de fiets maar het regent (en dat is niet zo leuk).
I am going on the bike but it is raining (and that is not so nice).

The table below lists the mosty common relationships together with the connectives that are mosty commonly used to express these relationships.

listing - aaneenschakeling >bovendien; >en; >noch (... noch) ; >ook; >ten eerste, ten tweede (..), ten slotte; >tevens; >zelfs; >zowel ... als ...
contrast - tegenstelling >aan de ene kant ... aan de andere kant...; >daarentegen; >desalniettemin; >echter; >enerzijds ... anderzijds ...; >hetzij ... hetzij ...; >maar; >nochtans; >of; >toch; >wel
effect -
gevolg 		>daardoor; >daarom; >dus; >zodat
time -
tijd 		>als; >alvorens; >na; >nadat; >sinds; >terwijl; >toen; >voor(dat); >wanneer; >zodra
reason -
reden 		>aangezien; >daar; >doordat; >omdat; >toch; >want
purpose -
doel 		>om
condition - voorwaarde >als, >indien, >tenzij
concession - toegeving >al; >alhoewel; >hoewel; >ofschoon
relation / proportion - verhouding >naarmate; >naargelang; >hoe … hoe/des te... + comparative
explanation - verklaring >althans; >immers; >tenslotte
expansion - uitbreiding >overigens; >trouwens

Knowing how to correctly use these connectives is very important. In order to use them successfully you not only need to know their meaning (i.e. the semantic relation they express), but you must also know what effect the use of connectives has on the construction of your text. Therefore, the connectives in the above list are subdivided below into three categories, depending on the syntactic connection that is made by them:


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