Breakdown of Als ze rijk was, zou ze naar het buitenland verhuizen.
zijn
to be
naar
to
zullen
shall / will
verhuizen
to move (house)
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
als
if / when (condition)
rijk
rich
het buitenland
abroad / the foreign countries
Questions & Answers about Als ze rijk was, zou ze naar het buitenland verhuizen.
Why is the past tense was used when this sentence is about the present?
Just like in English (If she were rich), Dutch uses the simple past tense to describe a hypothetical or unreal situation. Since she is not actually rich right now, we use was instead of the present tense is.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with zou ze instead of ze zou?
This is due to the verb-second rule. The entire if-clause (Als ze rijk was) takes up the first position in the sentence. Therefore, the conjugated verb of the main clause (zou) must come next to take the second position, which pushes the subject (ze) right after it.
How exactly does naar het buitenland translate to abroad?
In English, abroad is an adverb, but in Dutch, it is a noun phrase: het buitenland (literally: the outside-land). Because it is a physical destination you travel to, you need the preposition naar (to) to say that she is moving to that place.
Why is verhuizen at the very end of the sentence?
In this sentence, zou acts as an auxiliary (helper) verb. A standard rule in Dutch is that the conjugated helper verb takes the normal verb position, but it kicks the main infinitive verb (verhuizen) all the way to the end of the clause.
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