Abstract Among the Germanic languages, variation can be found with respect to the occurrence of a constituent in a position immediately preceding a definite subject. Whereas 'XP-subject' orders are possible in some languages, they are ruled out in other languages. Focusing on the West Germanic languages, this paper proposes that cross-linguistic variation with respect to 'XP-subject' orders can be related to other grammatical properties which vary among the different languages. Based on proposals made within the Minimalist framework, it will be argued that the presence or absence of the word order 'XP-subject' in the West Germanic languages follows from independent properties such as subject-verb agreement morphology and the licensing of non-overt expletives.