Breakdown of Je mag bloemen plukken, tenzij je er drie rode wilt.
drie
three
willen
to want
de bloem
the flower
mogen
to be allowed to / may
Questions & Answers about Je mag bloemen plukken, tenzij je er drie rode wilt.
Why do we need er in je er drie rode wilt?
This is the "quantitative er". In Dutch, whenever you count a noun that was mentioned earlier but is left out of the current phrase (in this case, bloemen / flowers), you must use er. It translates roughly to "of them": "unless you want three red (of them)".
In English we say "three red ones". Does rode mean "red ones"?
Essentially, yes! Dutch doesn't use a filler word like "ones". Instead, you just use the adjective and add an -e to it. The combination of er + number + adjective + e (here: er drie rode) is how you express "three red ones".
Why does the spelling change from rood to rode?
When you add the -e ending to rood, the syllable structure changes. To keep the long "o" sound, Dutch spelling rules dictate dropping one "o", turning it into rode.
Why is the verb wilt at the very end of the sentence?
The word tenzij (unless) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent sub-clause and forces the working verb in that clause (here, wilt) to the very end.