Word
Als de les eindigde, speelden we op het schoolplein.
Meaning
Whenever the lesson ended, we played on the schoolyard.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Als de les eindigde, speelden we op het schoolplein.
spelen
to play
op
on
eindigen
to end
de les
the lesson / the class
Questions & Answers about Als de les eindigde, speelden we op het schoolplein.
Why is als used here instead of toen for an action in the past?
In Dutch, toen is strictly used for a single, specific event in the past. Because this sentence describes a repeated habit (meaning "whenever" or "every time"), you must use als even though it happened in the past.
If I changed als to toen, would the sentence still be grammatically correct?
Yes, but the meaning would change completely. Toen de les eindigde, speelden we op het schoolplein means "When the lesson ended (on that one specific day), we played on the schoolyard." It changes a past routine into a one-off event.
Why is the main clause inverted to speelden we?
The whole subordinate clause (Als de les eindigde) counts as the first block of information in the sentence. Because the verb must come second in a main Dutch clause, speelden immediately follows the comma, pushing the subject (we) after it.
Why do we say op het schoolplein instead of in het schoolplein?
For squares, plazas, and yards (words ending in -plein), Dutch uses the preposition op. You can think of it as playing on an open, flat surface rather than being enclosed inside a space.