Breakdown of Ze dachten dat ze het zouden presteren, maar ze faalden.
maar
but
het
it
zullen
shall / will
denken
to think
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
dat
that (conjunction)
falen
to fail (in general, to not succeed)
presteren
to achieve (perform)
Questions & Answers about Ze dachten dat ze het zouden presteren, maar ze faalden.
Is the 'dat' in this sentence one of the independent exclamatory 'dat'-clauses from this lesson?
No, this is a standard dependent clause. In an exclamatory clause, the sentence would stand alone and start with dat to show strong emotion (for example: Dat ze het zouden presteren! meaning "To think they would pull it off!"). Here, dat simply links the main verb (dachten) to the thing they were thinking.
I learned that 'presteren' means 'to perform.' How does it mean 'to pull it off' here?
You're right that presteren usually means "to perform" or "to achieve" (like in a sport or at work). However, when used with the neutral pronoun het (het presteren), it takes on the idiomatic meaning of "to manage to do it" or "to pull it off," implying that the action was difficult or unexpected.
Why is 'zouden' used here instead of just putting 'presteren' in the past tense?
Zouden presteren translates to "would pull off." Because the main clause (Ze dachten) is in the past tense, their expectation about a future event also has to shift into the past. Just like in English, Dutch uses the past tense of "will" (zullen -> zouden) plus the infinitive to express this "future in the past."
Why doesn't the word order invert after 'maar'?
Maar is a coordinating conjunction (just like en or of). Coordinating conjunctions do not affect the word order of the clause that follows them. Therefore, ze faalden simply keeps the standard subject-verb order of a main clause.
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