# zou / zoude



## 123xyz

Hello everyone,

I am wondering what the difference between "zou" and "zoude" is.

 I know they are both form of "zullen" and the first one appears to be the past form while the second one appears to be the subjunctive form, though I don't know how a subjunctive form of "zullen" could be used since one of it's meanings is to indicate the future tense (and I don't see how the future subjunctive would work, at least not in a way different from the present subjunctive, since both would hypothetically deal with unreal situations, which are usually future anyway) and since another of it's meanings is to indicate the conditional forms (and I don't see how the conditional and subjunctive could be used together). 

Thank you in advance


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## Peterdg

"Zoude" is not used anymore in today's language. It's archaic.


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## 123xyz

In that case, what was it's function and usage before it became obsolete?


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## Peterdg

As far as I know, it was just used as the past tense of "zullen".


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## 123xyz

So, that means that the word "zoude" was merely simplified into "zou" by dropping the last syllable? It doesn't have anything to with the subjunctive versus the indicative as Wiktionary seems to indicate? If so, was "zoude" also used for the conditional and is "wou" derived in the same way from "woude", a past tense of "willen"?


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## bibibiben

123xyz said:


> So, that means that the word "zoude" was merely simplified into "zou" by dropping the last syllable? It doesn't have anything to with the subjunctive versus the indicative as Wiktionary seems to indicate? If so, was "zoude" also used for the conditional and is "wou" derived in the same way from "woude", a past tense of "willen"?



Exactly. Just like _zeide_ turned into _zei_.


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## 123xyz

Thank you for the answers.


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