Conditionalis

A B2 writer has to propose things, and a proposal is a condition: if this is done, that follows. Dutch splits the job across a real condition with als, an unreal one with zou, and a formal one with mocht. Learners tend to own the first and avoid the other two, which caps the register of everything they write. The forms are not hard; what is hard is that all three send verbs to the end and mocht inverts without any conjunction at all.

Schrijven, and specifically the medium task, where you are asked to describe a problem and propose a solution. A solution stated flatly is a wish; a solution stated as a condition is an argument, and two assessors read the difference. The sentence tasks that make up most of the paper also hand you conditional openers to complete. In Lezen, opinion texts argue in conditionals constantly — a writer who says het zou verstandig zijn is not describing what is happening, and a reader who takes it as fact answers the question wrongly.

Als de gemeente meer overleg organiseert, groeit het draagvlak.

Real condition. Both halves stay in the present; the als-clause sends its verb to the end.

Als er meer overleg zou zijn, zou het draagvlak groeien.

Unreal or hypothetical. Zou appears in both halves and the main clause inverts after the comma.

Mocht u nog vragen hebben, dan hoor ik het graag.

Formal condition. Mocht replaces als and inverts by itself — there is no conjunction in front of it.

Tenzij de kosten dalen, blijft het plan onhaalbaar.

Tenzij is the negative condition — unless. It behaves like als in every other respect.

• Als de gemeente de bewoners eerder zou informeren, zou veel weerstand voorkomen kunnen worden.

  ✗Als de gemeente de bewoners eerder zou informeren, veel weerstand zou voorkomen kunnen worden.

  A proposal with the writer's distance built into it — the standard shape for a medium-task recommendation.

• Mocht deze oplossing niet haalbaar zijn, dan stel ik een alternatief voor.

  ✗Als deze oplossing niet haalbaar is, ik stel een alternatief voor.

  Mocht inverts on its own and dan opens the second half. One sentence that raises the whole register of a letter.

• Zonder extra financiering is dit voorstel niet uitvoerbaar.

  A condition without als at all. Zonder plus a noun is shorter than a clause and reads as more confident.

• +Exception 1

  Als can be dropped and the clause inverted instead: Heeft u vragen, dan hoor ik het graag. It is formal, correct and very compact.

• +Exception 2

  Zou is not always conditional: it also softens a request or a claim. Ik zou zeggen dat is a hedge, not a hypothesis.

• ✗Forgetting that the main clause inverts after a fronted condition. The comma feels like a fresh start and it is not.
• ✗Putting als in front of mocht. Mocht already carries the meaning of als; the two together are ungrammatical.
• ✗In Lezen, reading a zou sentence as a statement of fact. It marks a proposal or a doubt, and questions about the writer's position turn on exactly that.