Breakdown of Zij willen weten wie hun geld steelt.
zij
they
het geld
the money
wie
who
willen
to want
hun
their
weten
to know (a fact)
stelen
to steal
Questions & Answers about Zij willen weten wie hun geld steelt.
Why does the verb steelt go at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase wie hun geld steelt is an indirect question. In Dutch, indirect questions follow the rules for subclauses, which means the conjugated verb (steelt) is pushed all the way to the end.
Why is steelt singular when the sentence starts with zij (they)?
The first part of the sentence has zij as the subject, which matches the plural verbs willen weten. However, in the indirect question wie hun geld steelt, the subject is wie (who). We treat wie as a singular third-person subject, so the verb takes the singular form steelt.
The English translation says 'is stealing'. Why isn't there a continuous verb form in the Dutch sentence?
Dutch uses the simple present tense much more often than English. The single word steelt covers both 'steals' in general and 'is stealing' right now.
I sometimes mix up hun and hen. Why is it hun geld here?
When it comes before a noun to show possession, you always use hun (meaning 'their'). You use hen when you mean 'them' as the receiving object of a sentence, such as 'I see them'.
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