Concessive Clauses
Concessive Clauses
Dutch has four ways to concede a point — hoewel, ondanks, al and weliswaar — and each demands a different structure: a verb-final clause, a bare noun, an inverted clause, or a paired connector.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
hoewel takes a clause; ondanks takes a noun
Hoewel het regende, gingen we lopen. / Ondanks de regen gingen we lopen.
Although it was raining, we went walking. / Despite the rain, we went walking.
The split mirrors English 'although' versus 'despite' exactly: hoewel introduces a full clause with the verb at the end, ondanks introduces a noun phrase. The formal variant of hoewel is ofschoon, and ondanks has the heavier niettegenstaande. Where English can say 'despite the fact that', Dutch prefers ondanks het feit dat — grammatical, but a sign you could have used hoewel instead.
al + inversion: a compact concession
Al is het laat, ik ga nog werken.
Late as it is, I'm still going to work.
al at the start of a clause means 'even though', and instead of sending the verb to the end it triggers inversion, putting the verb immediately after al: Al is het laat, Al heb je gelijk. This is a distinctly Dutch shortcut with no direct English equivalent — English has to restructure with 'even though' or the literary 'late as it is'. The main clause that follows usually opens with toch or dan.
weliswaar ... maar concedes then counters
Het is weliswaar duur, maar het werkt goed.
It is admittedly expensive, but it works well.
weliswaar signals that you are granting a point you are about to qualify, and it almost always pairs with a following maar. English uses 'admittedly' or 'it is true that'. The related pair enerzijds ... anderzijds ('on the one hand ... on the other') and the single adverb overigens ('incidentally, mind you') round out the toolkit for balanced argument.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- although
- English
- although (formal)
- English
- despite
- English
- notwithstanding
- English
- even though
- English
- admittedly
- English
- nevertheless
- English
- in spite of that
- English
- still / yet
- English
- in any case
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