Breakdown of Zodra het account werkt, hoef je slechts te wachten.
werken
to work
wachten
to wait
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
zodra
as soon as
hoeven
to need (to)
te
to (infinitive marker)
slechts
only / merely (just, no more than)
het account
the account
Questions & Answers about Zodra het account werkt, hoef je slechts te wachten.
How does hoeven work with slechts in this sentence?
Normally, hoeven is paired with a negative word like niet to mean "don't have to". But when paired with a restrictor like slechts (merely/only) or alleen maar, the meaning changes to "only have to". Just like with the negative form, you still need to put te before the infinitive, which gives us hoef je slechts te wachten.
Why is it hoef je and not hoeft je?
In Dutch, when the subject je or jij comes immediately after the verb, the verb drops its -t ending. Because this main clause starts with the verb to satisfy word order rules, je hoeft flips and becomes hoef je.
Could I say alleen maar instead of slechts here?
Yes, you could completely replace it and say hoef je alleen maar te wachten. Both mean exactly the same thing, but slechts sounds a bit more formal and is more common in written Dutch, while alleen maar is what you will hear most often in everyday speech.
Why are the verbs werkt and hoef right next to each other around the comma?
The word zodra (as soon as) starts a subclause, which pushes its verb (werkt) to the end of that chunk. Because this entire subclause acts as the first idea in the sentence, the main verb (hoef) must come immediately next to satisfy the Dutch verb-second (V2) rule.
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