Word
Sollte diese Abbuchung unberechtigt sein, geben wir Ihnen Ihr Geld zurück.
Meaning
Should this deduction be unauthorized, we will give your money back to you.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Sollte diese Abbuchung unberechtigt sein, geben wir Ihnen Ihr Geld zurück.
sein
to be
das Geld
the money
wir
we
Ihr
your (formal)
Questions & Answers about Sollte diese Abbuchung unberechtigt sein, geben wir Ihnen Ihr Geld zurück.
Why does this sentence start with Sollte instead of a wenn clause?
Putting sollte (the Konjunktiv II form of sollen) in the very first position is an elegant way to form an conditional clause without using wenn. It translates perfectly to the English structure 'Should this deduction be unauthorized...'. You can also say Wenn diese Abbuchung unberechtigt sein sollte..., but the inverted version sounds a bit more formal and professional.
Why is the verb geben immediately after the comma?
In German, a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence takes up Position 1. Since the main clause must have its conjugated verb in Position 2 to satisfy the V2 rule, geben has to come right after the comma. Think of the structure as: [Entire condition] + [Verb] + [Subject].
I recognize recht inside unberechtigt. How is this word put together?
Exactly! The root is das Recht (the right or law). The prefix be- and suffix -ig turn it into berechtigt, an adjective meaning 'authorized' or 'entitled'. Adding the negative prefix un- gives you unberechtigt (unauthorized or unjustified).
We have two objects here: Ihnen and Ihr Geld. Why are they in this specific order?