Breakdown of Mocht je een foutmelding in het venster zien, negeer die dan.
een
a/an
zien
to see
in
in
mogen
to be allowed to / may
Questions & Answers about Mocht je een foutmelding in het venster zien, negeer die dan.
Why does the sentence start with mocht?
Using the past tense of mogen (mocht for singular, mochten for plural) at the beginning of a sentence is how Dutch expresses a highly unlikely condition. Combined with the infinitive zien at the end of the clause, it translates directly to "Should you see..." or "If you happen to see...". Just like the English "should you", it forces verb-subject inversion.
Why is die used to mean "it" instead of hem or het?
Because foutmelding (error message) is a de-word, you cannot use het. While you could use the personal pronoun hem or haar, Dutch speakers frequently use the demonstrative pronoun die (that or that one) to point back to a recently mentioned de-word. It feels very natural and slightly more clear in a direct instruction like this.
What is the function of dan in the second clause?
Dan translates to "then". In conditional sentences, whether they start with als (if) or mocht (should), Dutch heavily prefers using dan in the second clause to clearly signal the consequence. Even when "then" is left out in English, including dan makes your Dutch flow much better.
Does the conditional clause push the verb negeer to the front of the second clause?