Breakdown of Mochten ze de foutmelding willen zien, sluit het venster dan niet.
niet
not
zien
to see
willen
to want
mogen
to be allowed to / may
Questions & Answers about Mochten ze de foutmelding willen zien, sluit het venster dan niet.
Why does this sentence start with Mochten instead of Als ze?
Starting a sentence with the past tense of mogen (mocht for singular, mochten for plural) is a formal way to express a highly improbable condition. It translates directly to the English "Should they...". Just like in English, dropping the "if" (als) means you must put the verb first, which is why Mochten is at the front of the sentence.
Why are the verbs willen zien placed at the very end of the first clause?
Even though the word als (if) is missing, the first part of the sentence is still a subordinate clause. Normally in a subordinate clause, all verbs get pushed to the end. In this specific high-improbability structure, the helping verb (mochten) jumps to position 1 to show the condition, but the rest of the verbs (willen zien) stay parked at the very end of the clause.
What is the function of dan in sluit het venster dan niet?
Dan translates to "then". While you could grammatically leave it out, Dutch speakers frequently use it to smoothly resume the main clause after a condition, creating a clear "if... then..." relationship. It acts as a bridge and makes the transition to the command much more natural.
The first half is about "them" (ze), so why does the second half use the singular-looking verb sluit?