Grammatica - loco

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11.8.3
11.8.3.1
Contracted modals in conditional tenses
Conditional tense:
Modal auxiliary verbs have in common with the auxiliaries hebben and
zijn the fact that they have contracted forms in the conditional (see 11.1.8).
There is one example of the concept in English too: ‘I could do it’ can
mean either ‘I was able to do it’ (an imperfect) or ‘I would be able to do
it’ (a conditional).
11.8.3.1.1 kunnen
Similarly the Dutch sentence Ik kon het doen is ambiguous without a context
and in the latter meaning it replaces Ik zou het kunnen doen, where kon
is the contracted form of zou kunnen. Either form is permissible but the
latter avoids any ambiguity.
11.8.3.1.2 moeten
In the same way moest/moesten can mean ‘should, ought to’ (a conditional)
as well as ‘had to’ (an imperfect), e.g. Je moest meer eten ‘You should eat
more’. Je zou meer moeten eten is equally correct and preferable if ambiguity
is likely.
11.8.3.1.3 willen
Willen has a contracted form too which means ‘would like to, want to’
and which is also identical to the past tense:
Ik wou graag twee kilo appels (hebben) =
Ik zou graag twee kilo appels willen (hebben).
I would like two kilos of apples.
The adverb graag is usually used in such ‘would like’ constructions but
not in questions:
Wil je een kopje koffie?
Would you like a cup of coffee?
Note the following use of wou which is also derived from a contracted
conditional:
Ik wou dat ik rijk was.
I wish I were rich.
Wilde(n) can never be used in any of the above conditional senses.
Modal
auxiliary
verbs
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