Learn Dutch: De overheid zou meer voor het milieu moeten doen. - The government should do more for the environment.

In Dutch, you express 'should' by combining the past tense of zullen (zou or zouden) with moeten (must) and the main action verb. Literally, it means 'would have to do'. Here, zou takes the second position in the sentence, while the infinitives moeten and doen are pushed to the end.

Since a government consists of many people, why use the singular zou instead of zouden?

Even though it represents a group of people, de overheid is a singular noun in Dutch. Therefore, it must take the singular verb form zou.

Why do the verbs moeten and doen stack up at the very end of the sentence?

In a main clause, the conjugated verb (zou) takes the second position, pushing all other verbs to the end. Because this sentence uses a 'zou moeten' construction along with the main action doen, both moeten and doen stay in their full infinitive forms and sit together at the end of the sentence.

I learned the word omgeving for 'environment'. Could I use it in this sentence instead of milieu?