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)
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
Ihnen
you / to you (formal, dative)
sollen
should / ought to
zurückgeben
to give back
unberechtigt
unauthorized
die Abbuchung
the deduction
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?
German has strict rules for object placement. Here, Ihnen is a dative pronoun and Ihr Geld is an accusative noun phrase. A pronoun will always come before a full noun phrase, so the dative pronoun Ihnen naturally steps ahead of the accusative noun Ihr Geld.
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