……
Breakdown of Controleer altijd het etiket als je vlees koopt.
kopen
to buy
je
you
controleren
to check
als
when
altijd
always
het vlees
the meat
het etiket
the label
Questions & Answers about Controleer altijd het etiket als je vlees koopt.
What does Controleer mean here, and what mood is it?
Controleer is the imperative form of controleren (“to check”). It’s a direct command or instruction telling someone to perform the action.
Why is altijd placed after the verb Controleer?
In Dutch main clauses, simple adverbs of frequency like altijd (“always”) usually follow the finite (conjugated) verb. Hence Controleer altijd… rather than Altijd controleer….
Why is the verb koopt at the end of the clause als je vlees koopt?
After a subordinating conjunction like als (“when/if”), Dutch word order requires the finite verb to move to the end. So je koopt vlees in a main clause becomes als je vlees koopt in a subordinate clause.
What function does als serve here, and why not use wanneer?
Here als means “when” in the sense of “every time that.” You could use wanneer, but wanneer is more formal or question-oriented and less common for habitual “whenever” statements.
Why is it het etiket and not de etiket?
Etiket is a neuter noun in Dutch, so it takes the definite article het. Only common gender (masculine/feminine) nouns use de.
Why is the pronoun je used instead of jij or u?
Je is the unstressed informal “you,” used in general instructions.
– jij would add emphasis (as in “you specifically”),
– u is the formal “you,” which you’d use in polite or official contexts (e.g. Controleert u altijd het etiket…).
Can you put a comma before als in this sentence?
It’s optional. Dutch allows Controleer altijd het etiket, als je vlees koopt, but most writers omit the comma when the subordinate clause comes at the end.
How would you say the same thing using moeten (“must”)?
You could say:
Je moet altijd het etiket controleren als je vlees koopt.
Here moet is the modal “must,” and controleren moves to the end as the full infinitive following a modal verb.
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