Word
De vlag is rood, dus je moet uitkijken.
Meaning
The flag is red, so you must watch out.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De vlag is rood, dus je moet uitkijken.
zijn
to be
rood
red
moeten
to have to, must
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Questions & Answers about De vlag is rood, dus je moet uitkijken.
Why is the word order je moet instead of moet je after dus?
The word dus (so) acts as a coordinating conjunction here, similar to en or maar. This means it starts a new main clause and does not trigger inversion, so the subject je comes right before the conjugated verb moet. Note that dus can also act as an adverb, in which case you would use inversion: ...dus moet je uitkijken, but treating it as a conjunction is completely natural here.
Since uitkijken is a separable verb, why isn't it split up here?
It remains whole because it is used in its infinitive form. The modal verb moet is the conjugated verb in this clause. A separable verb only splits when it is the conjugated verb itself, for example in a direct command like Kijk uit! (Watch out!).
How could I express a similar warning using the imperative conditional taught in this lesson?
This sentence uses a factual statement and a logical conclusion rather than an imperative conditional. To create the imperative conditional structure (which gives a direct warning), you could rephrase it as something like: Kijk niet uit, en je raakt in de problemen (Don't watch out, and you will get in trouble).
Could I use oppassen instead of uitkijken in this sentence?