Word
Als iemand gewond is, dan belt u de ambulance.
Meaning
If someone is injured, then you call the ambulance.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Als iemand gewond is, dan belt u de ambulance.
zijn
to be
u
you (formal)
bellen
to call
dan
then
Questions & Answers about Als iemand gewond is, dan belt u de ambulance.
Why is dan used here, and is it absolutely necessary?
The word dan (then) acts as a resumptive adverb here. It refers back to the entire condition you just set up in the first clause (Als iemand gewond is), making the cause-and-effect relationship much clearer. It isn't strictly required—you could grammatically say Als iemand gewond is, belt u de ambulance—but adding dan is extremely common and sounds very natural in Dutch.
Could I use zo instead of dan in this sentence?
No, because this is a conditional sentence. We use dan for logical consequences, which perfectly matches an als (if) clause. You would use zo to resume a manner or method, meaning "in this way" or "like this" (for example, if the first clause was about how to perform first aid, rather than whether someone needs it).
Why is the word order dan belt u instead of dan u belt?
Why does the first part of the sentence end with the verb is?