Breakdown of De bemanning geloofde dat het schip niet zou zinken.
niet
not
zullen
shall / will
geloven
to believe
dat
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about De bemanning geloofde dat het schip niet zou zinken.
Could we use this lesson's structure, komen te, in this sentence?
Yes! You could say ... dat het schip niet zou komen te zinken. Adding komen te changes the meaning slightly from 'would not sink' to 'would not end up sinking', emphasizing the resulting state rather than just the simple action of sinking.
Why do we use zou here instead of a normal past tense verb?
zou is the past tense of zullen (will). The crew was making a prediction in the past about an event that was in the future at that time. Just like in English where 'will' becomes 'would' in past-tense reported speech, Dutch uses zou + infinitive (zinken) for this 'future in the past'.
Why are both zou and zinken at the very end of the sentence?
The word dat (that) introduces a subordinate clause, which forces all verbs to the end. When you have an auxiliary like zou and an infinitive like zinken, they must form a verb cluster together at the end of the clause.
Could I reverse the verb order at the end and say ... niet zinken zou?
Yes, in a Dutch subordinate clause, the auxiliary and the main verb can usually swap places. Both zou zinken and zinken zou are grammatically correct, though zou zinken is generally more common.