Learn Dutch: Als we vroeger spijbelden, gingen we altijd stiekem naar de bioscoop. - Whenever we skipped school in the past, we always secretly went to the cinema.

In Dutch, toen is used for a single specific event in the past or a single continuous past period. Because skipping school happened repeatedly in this sentence (indicated by altijd), you must use als to express a past habit, meaning "whenever" or "every time that".

Since als often means "if" or "when" for the present and future, how do we know this refers to the past?

The verbs spijbelden and gingen are in the past tense, which sets the timeframe. Additionally, the adverb vroeger (in the past or back in the days) explicitly marks the context as a past habit, making it instantly clear that als means "whenever" rather than a conditional "if".

Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb gingen instead of we gingen?

The entire first clause (Als we vroeger spijbelden) occupies the first position of the main sentence. According to the Dutch verb-second rule, the conjugated verb of the main clause (gingen) must take the second position. This forces the subject (we) to invert and come right after the verb.

Why is altijd placed before stiekem?

Dutch typically orders adverbs by "Time, Manner, Place". In this sentence, altijd (always) is an adverb of time, and stiekem (secretly) is an adverb of manner. Therefore, the time adverb must come before the manner adverb.