Word
Zij wilden vroeger veel geld verdienen.
Meaning
They wanted to earn a lot of money back then.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Zij wilden vroeger veel geld verdienen.
zij
they
veel
much / many / a lot of
het geld
the money
willen
to want
Questions & Answers about Zij wilden vroeger veel geld verdienen.
Why is the verb wilden and not just wilde?
Because the subject is plural (zij, meaning they). The singular past tense of willen (to want) is wilde, and for plural subjects, you simply add an -n to make it wilden.
What exactly does vroeger mean here?
Vroeger translates to 'in the past' or 'back then'. When used with the past tense, it often gives the sentence a 'used to' feeling, emphasizing that this was an ongoing desire they had during that time.
Why is verdienen at the very end of the sentence?
This is the standard Dutch word order when you use a modal verb. The conjugated past tense verb (wilden) takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb (verdienen, meaning 'to earn') gets pushed to the very end in its full dictionary form (the infinitive).
Could I use ze instead of zij in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Zij is the stressed form, which puts emphasis on the people ('They wanted to earn money'). If you just want to state the fact without emphasizing 'they', the unstressed ze is perfectly fine.