Breakdown of Soms zeg je niets, maar dat is onbeleefd.
zijn
to be
maar
but
zeggen
to say
dat
that (het-words)
soms
sometimes
niets
nothing
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
onbeleefd
impolite
Questions & Answers about Soms zeg je niets, maar dat is onbeleefd.
In this sentence, does je mean "you" specifically, or something else?
Here, je means "you" in a general sense, similar to "people in general" or the formal English "one". The sentence isn't accusing you personally of saying nothing; it's making a general social observation: "Sometimes one says nothing..."
Why is the word order zeg je instead of je zegt?
Because the sentence starts with the time word soms (sometimes). In Dutch, when you put anything other than the subject at the very beginning of a main clause, the verb and subject must swap places. This rule is called inversion.
Why doesn't the word maar push the verb to the end of the sentence?
Maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction, just like en (and) or of (or). These connecting words link two normal main sentences together without changing the word order at all. That is why dat is onbeleefd keeps its standard subject-verb order.
How does the word onbeleefd get its meaning?
The core word is beleefd, which means "polite". Just like the English prefixes "un-" or "im-" (as in "impolite"), adding the prefix on- to a Dutch adjective creates its exact opposite.
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