Breakdown of Het is dat het ongelegen komt, anders wilde ze zich niet afmelden.
zijn
to be
niet
not
komen
to come
willen
to want
Questions & Answers about Het is dat het ongelegen komt, anders wilde ze zich niet afmelden.
How does the structure 'Het is dat...' set up the meaning of this sentence?
The phrase Het is dat translates to 'It's just that...' or 'The only reason is that...'. It introduces the actual fact that prevents the hypothetical situation from happening. Notice that it triggers subordinate word order, sending the verb komt to the end of its clause.
Why does the Dutch sentence use the verb komt instead of is for 'it's inconvenient'?
In Dutch, the standard expression for bad timing is ongelegen komen (literally 'to come inconveniently'). While you might occasionally hear it used with zijn (to be), using komen is the most natural way to say that something happens at an inconvenient time.
Why is wilde used here to mean 'would want' instead of 'wanted'?
Although wilde is the simple past tense of willen (to want), Dutch frequently uses the simple past to express a hypothetical or counterfactual scenario. Here, combined with anders (otherwise), it acts like the English conditional 'would want'.
Why is the word order wilde ze instead of ze wilde?