Breakdown of Iedere burger zou moeten bijdragen aan de gemeenschap.
de burger
the citizen
de gemeenschap
the community
bijdragen aan
to contribute to
Questions & Answers about Iedere burger zou moeten bijdragen aan de gemeenschap.
Why do we use zou moeten to mean "should"?
To express advice or a moral obligation like "should" or "ought to", Dutch uses the past tense of zullen (here, the singular zou to match iedere burger) followed by the infinitive moeten. It translates literally to "would have to".
Why is it iedere burger and not ieder burger?
The word ieder (every/each) gets an -e ending when it comes before a de-word. Because it is de burger, it becomes iedere burger. If it were a het-word, like het huis, it would stay ieder huis.
bijdragen is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up here?
Separable verbs only split when they are the conjugated verb in a main clause. Here, the conjugated verb is zou. This pushes the other verbs (moeten and bijdragen) to the end of the sentence as infinitives. When a separable verb is used as a full infinitive, the prefix and the verb stay attached as one word.
Why does the sentence use the preposition aan here?
The verb bijdragen (to contribute) uses a fixed preposition. When you want to specify what you are contributing to, you must use bijdragen aan. Therefore, "to the community" becomes aan de gemeenschap.
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