Learn Dutch: Men wil oude tradities bewaren. - People want to preserve old traditions.

Men is a formal indefinite pronoun that means people in general, they, or one. In everyday spoken Dutch, you would usually say ze (they) or mensen (people) instead. You will mostly see men in written Dutch, news reports, or formal speech.

Why is the verb wil singular when men translates to the plural word people?

Even though men refers to a group of people in general, it is grammatically a singular pronoun. It acts just like the English word one (as in one wants to preserve traditions). Therefore, it takes the third-person singular verb form, which for willen is wil.

Why does the adjective oude have an -e at the end?

In Dutch, adjectives almost always get an -e added to them when placed directly before a plural noun. Because tradities (traditions) is plural, the base adjective oud becomes oude.

Why is the verb bewaren at the very end of the sentence?

This sentence uses the modal verb willen (to want). In a standard Dutch main clause, the conjugated verb (wil) goes in the second position, and the main action verb in its infinitive form (bewaren) is pushed to the very end of the sentence.