Breakdown of Heeft de douane de dader kunnen vinden die het goud wil smokkelen?
hebben
to have
vinden
to find
willen
to want
kunnen
can
de dader
the perpetrator
die
who / that (relative pronoun)
het goud
gold
de douane
customs
smokkelen
to smuggle
Questions & Answers about Heeft de douane de dader kunnen vinden die het goud wil smokkelen?
Why does the sentence use kunnen instead of the past participle gekund?
This is the double infinitive rule you are currently learning! When a modal verb like kunnen is used in the perfect tense alongside another verb (here, vinden), it turns back into its infinitive form instead of using a past participle. So, instead of heeft gekund vinden, we say heeft kunnen vinden.
Why are both kunnen and vinden placed together before the second half of the sentence?
In Dutch perfect tenses, the auxiliary verb (heeft) takes the normal verb position, and the rest of the verbs are pushed to the end. When you have a double infinitive like kunnen vinden, they stick together at the end of their main clause, just before the descriptive part (die...) starts.
The word die translates to 'who' here. Can I use wie instead?
No, wie is mostly used as a question word ('Who is that?') or after a preposition. When referring back to a person or thing that was just mentioned (like de dader), you must use a relative pronoun. Because dader is a de-word, we use die.
In the second part of the sentence, why is wil smokkelen at the very end?
The word die introduces a relative clause, which follows the same strict word order rules as a subordinate clause. In these clauses, all verbs are pushed to the very end. That is why the verbs wil smokkelen come after the object het goud.
In English, 'customs' looks plural. Is de douane singular or plural?
It is singular in Dutch. Even though it ends in an 's' in English, you can tell it acts as a singular noun here because it is paired with the singular auxiliary verb heeft.
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