Word
Als ik meer geld had, zou alles beter zijn.
Meaning
If I had more money, everything would be better.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Als ik meer geld had, zou alles beter zijn.
Why is the past tense verb had used here when the sentence is about a present situation?
In Dutch, just like in English, we use the simple past tense to talk about a hypothetical or unreal situation in the present. Using had shows that you do not actually have more money right now.
Why does the first part end with had instead of saying Als ik had meer geld?
Als (if) creates a subclause. In a Dutch subclause, the conjugated verb (in this case, had) gets pushed all the way to the end of its clause.
Why does the second half start with zou instead of alles zou?
This is because of the verb-second (V2) rule. The entire first part (Als ik meer geld had) counts as position number one. The conjugated verb of the main clause (zou) must take the second position, so it swaps places with its subject (alles).
Why do we use zou instead of zouden in this sentence?
Zou is the singular form, and zouden is the plural. Even though alles means everything, it is grammatically a singular subject in Dutch. Therefore, it takes the singular verb zou.