Breakdown of Ik moest hard werken voor mijn salaris.
ik
I
werken
to work
hard
loud / fast (forceful) / hard (with effort)
mijn
my
moeten
to have to, must
voor
for (on behalf of)
het salaris
the salary
Questions & Answers about Ik moest hard werken voor mijn salaris.
How do we know to use moest here instead of moet?
Moest is the past tense of the modal verb moeten (to have to). You use it because the sentence is talking about the past: I had to work. If it were present tense (I must work), you would use ik moet.
English doesn't have a past tense for "must". How does this work in Dutch?
Why isn't the verb werken at the very end of the sentence?
When a sentence has a modal verb (moest) and an infinitive verb (werken), the infinitive usually gets pushed to the end. However, phrases starting with a preposition (like voor mijn salaris) can be placed after all the verbs to make the sentence flow better. Saying Ik moest hard voor mijn salaris werken is also completely correct.
Does the word hard mean the exact same thing as in English?
In this context, yes: it means doing something with a lot of effort. But keep in mind that in Dutch, hard is also commonly used to mean fast (like driving hard) or loud (like speaking hard).
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