Breakdown of U moet voldoende saldo hebben, anders kunnen we niet afschrijven.
u
you (formal)
niet
not
hebben
to have
kunnen
can
moeten
to have to, must
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
voldoende
enough / sufficient
anders
otherwise / differently
het saldo
the balance
afschrijven
to debit
Questions & Answers about U moet voldoende saldo hebben, anders kunnen we niet afschrijven.
Why is the word order anders kunnen we instead of anders we kunnen?
Why doesn't voldoende get an -e ending here?
The word voldoende (sufficient/enough) is a special adjective in Dutch. It is invariable, meaning it never takes an -e ending, regardless of the gender or plurality of the noun it modifies.
The English translation says "we cannot debit", but doesn't afschrijven need an object, like an amount of money?
Not necessarily. In financial and banking contexts, afschrijven is frequently used without a direct object to refer to the general action of debiting or withdrawing money from an account.
Afschrijven is a separable verb. Why hasn't it been split up into schrijven af here?
Because the second clause uses the modal verb kunnen. The modal verb takes the second position in the sentence, which pushes the main verb (afschrijven) to the very end of the clause in its full, unsplit infinitive form.
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