Als u deze bepaling schendt, wordt het contract ontbonden.

Questions & Answers about Als u deze bepaling schendt, wordt het contract ontbonden.

Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb wordt instead of the subject het contract?
Because the entire first clause (Als u deze bepaling schendt) acts as the first block of information in the main sentence. In Dutch, the finite verb must come second (the V2 rule). Therefore, the verb wordt comes right after the comma, resulting in inversion of the subject and verb.
Why does the Dutch sentence use the present tense (wordt) when the English translation uses the future ('will be')?
In Dutch, the present tense is very commonly used to express future events, especially when a condition (like an als clause) makes it obvious that the event hasn't happened yet. While you could technically use the future passive (zal worden ontbonden), the present passive (wordt ontbonden) is standard and sounds much more natural.
Why doesn't the past participle ontbonden have a ge- prefix?
The infinitive is ontbinden (to dissolve or terminate). Verbs that begin with an unstressed, inseparable prefix like ont-, be-, ver-, or ge- do not take an additional ge- prefix when forming the past participle.
Since this lesson is about hetgeen, how could we use it to add ', which means that...' to the end of this sentence?
You could add: ..., hetgeen betekent dat.... The formal pronoun hetgeen acts just like wat when referring back to an entire preceding clause (in this case, the fact that the contract is dissolved). Because this sentence uses formal legal vocabulary (bepaling, schendt, ontbonden), hetgeen fits the tone perfectly.

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