Breakdown of Dat is het probleem dat wij zouden oplossen.
zijn
to be
wij
we
het probleem
the problem
dat
that (het-words)
zullen
shall / will
dat
that/which (relative pronoun)
oplossen
to solve / to resolve
Questions & Answers about Dat is het probleem dat wij zouden oplossen.
Why is it zouden here instead of zou?
Zouden is the plural form of the verb, used here because the subject is wij (we). If the subject were singular, like ik (I) or hij (he), you would use zou: ...dat ik zou oplossen.
Why does the word dat appear twice in this sentence?
They have two different jobs! The first Dat means "That" (pointing to something: "That is the problem"). The second dat connects the two parts of the sentence, meaning "that" or "which" ("the problem that we would solve"). It refers back to het probleem. Because probleem is a het-word, we use dat to refer back to it. If it were a de-word, we would use die.
Why are both verbs (zouden oplossen) pushed to the very end of the sentence?
The second part of the sentence (dat wij zouden oplossen) is a relative clause—a type of sub-clause that gives more information about the problem. As you may remember from earlier lessons, in Dutch sub-clauses, all verbs get pushed to the end.
Oplossen (to solve) is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up here?
You only split a separable verb when it acts as the main conjugated verb in a normal sentence (for example: Wij lossen het probleem op). In this sentence, zouden is the conjugated verb, so oplossen stays in its full dictionary form (the infinitive) at the end.
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