Learn Hardcore Dutch: De politieagent vroeg of we onze parkeerplaats snel wilden vrijmaken. - The police officer asked whether we would vacate our parking spot quickly.

In Dutch, when you want to report an indirect question (asked “if/whether”), you introduce the subordinate clause with of. Here vroeg of we … wilden vrijmaken means “asked if we … wanted to clear/vacate.”

Why is vroeg in the past tense?

Vroeg is the simple past form of vragen (“to ask”). Since the action of asking happened in the past, the main verb is in the past tense.

Why does the subordinate clause use wilden instead of willen?

Dutch follows a sequence-of-tenses rule: if the main clause verb is past (here vroeg), the subordinate clause also shifts to past. So willen becomes wilden.

Why is vrijmaken placed at the end of the subordinate clause?

In Dutch subordinate clauses, the verb (or verb cluster) goes to the very end. Here the auxiliary wilden and the infinitive vrijmaken form that cluster and sit after subject and adverb.

What does the separable verb vrijmaken mean?

Vrijmaken literally breaks down into vrij (“free”) + maken (“make”). As a whole, it means “to clear,” “to free up,” or “to vacate” (in this case, the parking space).

How does the adverb snel fit into the sentence structure?

Adverbs of manner like snel (“quickly”/“as soon as possible”) typically come before the finite verb or auxiliary in subordinate clauses. Here snel appears before wilden, after the object onze parkeerplaats.

Why is onze used before parkeerplaats instead of ons?

Dutch possessive pronouns agree with the gender of the noun. Parkeerplaats is a de-woord (common gender), so you use onze. With a het-woord you would use ons, e.g. ons huis.

What is the typical word order in this subordinate clause?

In a Dutch subordinate clause you generally get: subject – object – adverb – auxiliary – main verb/infinitive. Here that yields: we (subject), onze parkeerplaats (object), snel (adverb), wilden (auxiliary), vrijmaken (infinitive).