<i>Als dan</i> or <i>dan als</i>?

Abstract Dutch conditional sentences can occur in canonical clause order, such that the antecedent precedes the consequent, but also in non-canonical order, with the antecedent in sentence-final position. One explanation for the existence of this variety lies in the implicatures they convey: predictive conditionals have what Reuneker (2022) labels a more direct connectedness, possibly resulting in a larger preference for the canonical order than speech act conditionals, which are known for their indirect connectedness. Clause order preference could also be influenced by the desire to optimise discourse coherency ( Lee 2001 ). We put these two factors to the test in an online experiment and found evidence for both theories but not for their interaction. Interestingly, we also found a general preference for the canonical order across all conditions.