Grammatica - loco

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In addition to rendering ‘would’, the past tense of zullen, zou/zouden is
used in journalese above all in a quotative sense, i.e. to report a fact
without committing yourself as to whether what is being reported is true
or not (compare the use of the subjunctive in reporting speech in German);
it is best expressed adverbially in English by words such as ‘allegedly’ or
‘supposedly’ (see 11.2.7.1):
De brand zou zijn aangestoken door een vluchteling.
The fire was supposedly/allegedly started by a refugee.
11.9
11.9.1
The infinitive
De onbepaalde wijs
Characteristics of the infinitive
The infinitive or basic undeclined form of the verb always ends in -en in
Dutch: lopen ‘to run’, jagen ‘to hunt’ etc. There are only six monosyllabic
verbs whose infinitives end in -n: doen, gaan, slaan, staan, zien, zijn.
English always puts ‘to’ before the infinitive in isolation; one should learn
each new verb as follows: lopen = to run. In context, however, there are
occasions when this ‘to’ may or may not be used. Similarly in Dutch,
although the infinitive in isolation is never preceded by te, in context there
are rules for when te is and is not used before an infinitive.
11.9.2
Rules for the use of te
As a general rule one can say that an infinitive at the end of a clause is
always preceded by te except in the following cases:
11.9.2.1
When the infinitive is used as a general impersonal imperative (see 11.10.3):
niet roken ‘don’t smoke’, geen lawaai maken ‘don’t make any
noise’, niet zo langzaam lopen ‘don’t walk so slowly’, weg
wezen ‘get lost/scram’.
The infinitive
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