Grammatica - loco

11
Verbs
224
11.8.3.1.4 mogen
There is a contraction of mogen in the conditional which is rather formal
style and which is translated by ‘should’ in English:
Mocht het regenen, dan komen we niet.
Should it rain, we won’t be coming.
Use of dan in the second clause in this construction with mocht is compulsory
(see 12.2.1.5) but note its position in the following clause when used in
a question compared with the above:
Mocht uw instelling inmiddels gefuseerd zijn, wilt u dan
aangeven waarmee?
Should your institution have been amalgamated in the meantime,
would you then mention with what?
11.8.3.2
11.8.3.2.1 kunnen
Conditional perfect of kunnen and moeten (see also
11.12.4.4)
The English phrase ‘could have done’ is a contraction of ‘would have
been able to do’ and as such can be rendered in Dutch by Hij zou het
hebben kunnen doen but the following contracted form is more commonly
used: Hij had het kunnen doen (for contraction of zou . . . hebben to
had/hadden see 11.1.8).
It is best to learn had/hadden kunnen doen parrot-fashion and to apply
it as follows:
Zij had dat liedje beter kunnen zingen.
She could have sung that song better.
11.8.3.2.2 moeten
The construction ‘should have done’ is similar to the above but is impossible
to rephrase sensibly in ‘would’ terms in English. In this case it is advisable
to learn had/hadden moeten doen parrot-fashion and to apply it as follows:
Zij hadden de krant moeten lezen.
They should have read the newspaper.
Note that the contracted conditional perfect forms had(den) kunnen doen
and had(den) moeten doen are identical to the pluperfect (as a result of