Word
Als je bang bent, moet je niet naar het spookhuis gaan.
Meaning
If you are afraid, you must not go to the haunted house.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Als je bang bent, moet je niet naar het spookhuis gaan.
zijn
to be
niet
not
naar
to
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
Questions & Answers about Als je bang bent, moet je niet naar het spookhuis gaan.
Why is it moet je instead of je moet in the second part of the sentence?
The sentence starts with the 'if' clause (Als je bang bent). In Dutch, this entire clause counts as the first block of information. Because the main verb must come second (the V2 rule), the verb moet comes right after the comma, swapping places with the subject je.
Why does the verb bent go at the very end of the first part?
The word als (if) introduces a dependent clause (a subclause). In Dutch subclauses, all verbs are pushed to the very end. That is why we say Als je bang bent (If you afraid are) instead of Als je bent bang.
This lesson is about using te ... om te (too ... to). How could we express the same idea using that structure?
You could say: Je bent te bang om naar het spookhuis te gaan. This translates to 'You are too afraid to go to the haunted house,' which perfectly expresses the consequence taught in this lesson!
Why do we use naar here for 'to' the haunted house?
When you are talking about physically moving or travelling to a destination, you almost always use naar. Because we are talking about going to a location (naar het spookhuis gaan), naar is the correct preposition.