Breakdown of We zouden oorspronkelijk samenwerken, maar het project ging niet door.
niet
not
maar
but
wij
we
het project
the project
zullen
shall / will
samenwerken
to collaborate / to work together
doorgaan
to continue / to go on
oorspronkelijk
originally
Questions & Answers about We zouden oorspronkelijk samenwerken, maar het project ging niet door.
Why do we use zouden here to mean 'were going to'?
In Dutch, you use the past tense of zullen, which is zou or zouden, along with an infinitive to express the future in the past. It describes a plan or intention that was made in the past, similar to saying 'were going to' or 'would' in English. In this sentence, zouden samenwerken means 'were going to work together'.
Why does the sentence end with door? Is that part of a verb?
Yes, it belongs to the separable verb doorgaan, which means to go ahead, to continue, or to take place. Because this is a main clause in the simple past tense, the verb splits. The conjugated part ging takes the second position, and the prefix door is sent to the very end of the sentence.
Does the word maar affect the word order of the second clause?
No, maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction, which means it acts like a bridge between two independent sentences. It does not push the verb to the end like a subordinating conjunction (such as omdat or dat) would. Therefore, the second clause uses normal word order: subject (het project) followed directly by the verb (ging).
Could I put oorspronkelijk at the beginning of the sentence?
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