Breakdown of Als we het blog updateten, zouden meer mensen het lezen.
lezen
to read
het
it
de mens
the human / person
zullen
shall / will
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
meer
more
als
if / when (condition)
updaten
to update
het blog
the blog
Questions & Answers about Als we het blog updateten, zouden meer mensen het lezen.
Why is the verb spelled updateten with that slightly awkward '-tete-' in the middle?
The infinitive of this English loanword is updaten. To form the past tense, we first need the stem. We just drop the -n (giving us the stem update), keeping the 'e' to preserve the English pronunciation of the 'a'. Because the stem ends in a 't' sound, it follows the 't kofschip rule, meaning we add -te for the singular past and -ten for the plural. Therefore: update + -ten = updateten.
Is the first 'e' in updateten pronounced?
No, it is entirely silent. You pronounce this word just like the English word "update" followed by the Dutch ending -ten. Dutch spelling rules keep that silent 'e' in the stem so that you know the 'a' is pronounced as an English 'a' rather than a short Dutch 'a'.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb zouden?
The entire conditional clause (Als we het blog updateten) counts as the first grammatical position in the sentence. Because Dutch main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule, the main verb (zouden) must come immediately after the comma. The subject (meer mensen) then follows the verb.
We use the past tense updateten, but doesn't this sentence describe a hypothetical situation right now?
Exactly! This is the irrealis (hypothetical) use of the past tense. Just like in English ("If we updated the blog today..."), Dutch uses the simple past tense to describe an imagined or unlikely situation in the present or future. It is paired here with zouden (would) + an infinitive (lezen) to show the hypothetical result.
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