Word
Als u de rook ziet, dan schakelt u het alarm in.
Meaning
If you see the smoke, then you switch on the alarm.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Als u de rook ziet, dan schakelt u het alarm in.
u
you (formal)
zien
to see
dan
then
als
if / when (condition)
Questions & Answers about Als u de rook ziet, dan schakelt u het alarm in.
Why is the word dan used here, and what does it do?
The word dan acts as a resumptive adverb. It refers back to the entire condition we just set in the Als (If) clause. It works just like the word "then" in an English "if... then..." sentence. It adds emphasis to the sequence of events but is technically optional.
Why is the word order schakelt u instead of u schakelt?
In Dutch main clauses, the verb must be in the second position. Because the word dan takes up the first position, the verb schakelt must come right after it. This pushes the subject u (you) after the verb, causing inversion.
What would the sentence look like if we removed dan?
It would be: Als u de rook ziet, schakelt u het alarm in. Without dan, the entire Als clause counts as the first position of the sentence. The verb schakelt must still be the second idea in the sentence, so it still comes right after the comma.
Why is the word in sitting all by itself at the very end of the sentence?
It belongs to the separable verb inschakelen (to switch on). When you use a separable verb in a main clause, the conjugated part of the verb (schakelt) takes the second position, and the prefix (in) gets kicked to the very end of the clause.