Word
Hadden we toen een andere richting moeten kiezen?
Meaning
Should we have chosen another direction back then?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hadden we toen een andere richting moeten kiezen?
een
a/an
hebben
to have
kiezen
to choose
moeten
to have to, must
Questions & Answers about Hadden we toen een andere richting moeten kiezen?
Why do we use the infinitive moeten here instead of the past participle gemoeten?
This is the IPP rule (infinitive instead of participle) in action! When a modal verb like moeten is used in the perfect tense together with another verb (here, kiezen), it doesn't turn into a past participle. Instead, it stays in the infinitive form, giving us a "double infinitive" at the end of the sentence.
How exactly does hadden ... moeten kiezen mean "should have chosen"?
To say you "should have" done something in the past, Dutch uses the past perfect tense of moeten. Literally, the structure is "had must choose" (hadden ... moeten kiezen). The past auxiliary hadden combined with the modal moeten creates that feeling of an unfulfilled past obligation.
Is the order of the double infinitive strict? Could I say kiezen moeten?
The order is strict here. In a double infinitive construction with a modal verb, the modal verb (moeten) almost always comes before the main action verb (kiezen) at the end of the clause.
Just to double-check: why does andere have an -e ending even though it follows een?