Breakdown of Welk alternatief zouden jullie hebben overwogen?
jullie
you (plural)
hebben
to have
welk
which (for het-words)
zullen
shall / will
het alternatief
the alternative
overwegen
to consider
Questions & Answers about Welk alternatief zouden jullie hebben overwogen?
How do you form the past conditional in this sentence?
To talk about something that might have happened in the past but didn't, Dutch uses the past tense of zullen (here, zouden to match the plural jullie) plus the perfect tense of the main verb (hebben overwogen). This translates directly to the English structure "would have considered".
Could I change the word order at the end and say overwogen hebben?
Yes! When you have an auxiliary verb (hebben) and a past participle (overwogen) at the end of a sentence, Dutch allows both orders. Saying zouden jullie overwogen hebben is perfectly correct, though putting hebben first is very common in everyday speech.
Why is it Welk alternatief instead of Welke alternatief?
The noun alternatief is a het-word (het alternatief). When asking "which" before a singular het-word, you must use the uninflected form welk. If it were a de-word or a plural noun, you would use welke.
Why doesn't the past participle overwogen have a ge- prefix?
The verb overwegen (to consider) has an inseparable prefix (over-). Verbs starting with inseparable prefixes do not get a ge- added to their past participle. It is also a strong (irregular) verb, which explains the vowel change from ee in the infinitive to oo in the past participle.
Learn Welk alternatief zouden jullie hebben overwogen and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free