Breakdown of Iedereen zou iets moeten bijdragen aan de gemeenschap.
moeten
to have to, must
zullen
shall / will
iets
something
aan
to (recipient)
iedereen
everyone
de gemeenschap
the community
bijdragen
to contribute
Questions & Answers about Iedereen zou iets moeten bijdragen aan de gemeenschap.
Why is it zou here instead of zouden, if the lesson is about zouden moeten?
The pronoun iedereen (everyone) is treated as a singular word in Dutch, just like in English. Because of this, we use the singular form zou rather than the plural zouden.
Why do we put moeten and bijdragen together at the end of the sentence?
In Dutch sentences with multiple verbs, the conjugated verb (zou) takes the second position, and all other verbs are pushed to the end as infinitives. When you have a double infinitive like this, they just stack up. You will almost always see the modal verb (moeten) placed right before the main action verb (bijdragen).
The verb bijdragen (to contribute) is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up?
Separable verbs only split when they are the active, conjugated verb in the sentence. Because zou is the conjugated verb here, bijdragen is just an infinitive at the end of the sentence and keeps its prefix attached.
Does bijdragen always pair with the preposition aan?
Yes, when you want to specify what you are contributing to, you use the fixed combination bijdragen aan. It maps perfectly to the English phrase contribute to.
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